Nine component parts of the “Silk Roads: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor” located in Tajikistan’s Sughd province have reportedly been inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List 

Khovar news agency says Ancient Town of Panjakent, Sanjarshoh Town, Gardani-Hisor, Hisorak, Castle on Munt Mugh, Kum Settlement, Tali Khamtuda, Toksankorez irrigation system, and Hoji Muhammad Bashoro Mausoleum have been officially inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.

The Tentative List is an inventory of natural and cultural heritage sites, which a country believes meet the World Heritage Committee selection criteria and from which it intends to nominate sites within 10 years.

The Silk Roads extended over 6500 kilometers and connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world and served as historical network of interlinking trade routes, intercultural dialogue, exchange of traditions, sciences, art, religions, languages and human values.

The “Silk Roads: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor” is located along the Zarafshan River, its wider hydrological basin and the Karakum desert.  It was identified in the Silk Roads ICOMOS Thematic Study as the 4th and 5th corridors out of 54.  It is linked to the Tien-Shan corridor in the North, the Fergana Valley corridor in the East, the Amudarya corridor in the South and via the Southern Aral Sea to the Caspian corridor in the West, as well as from Merv to the Khorasan corridor (once called Great Khorasan Road in early Islamic period.

The corridor starts from Hisorak in Sughd province in Tajikistan and ends in Kushmeihan in Mary province in Turkmenistan. The length of the corridor is about 866 kilometers and it lies in the three Central Asian countries Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.  

The corridor consists of 31 component parts in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.  In addition, there are three World Heritage properties, the Samarkand-Crossroad of Cultures, the Historic Center of Bukhara and Ancient Merv State Historical and Cultural Park, situated along the corridor.  In addition, the world heritage property Historic Center of Shakhrisyabz, medieval Kesh, is located somewhat to the south, but it is also profoundly related to the corridor. 

From the 2nd century BC to the end of the 16th century the Corridor had three important periods of prosperity. First, during the blossom of pre-Islamic Sogdian culture, from the 5th to 8th century, under Hepthalite, Turk, Chinese and Arab rule, when the role of Central Asian merchants increased significantly, especially of the Sogdians, who were the main intermediaries in international silk trade called the “Phoenicians of the Silk Road” by 20th century scholars, but also developed a unique developed culture in their motherland in and near Zarafshan valley. Second, during the 10th century, the period of the Samanids and later pre-Mongol dynasties, when cities and urban culture in Maverannahr (Transoxiana) actively developed and trade activities within Muslim ecumene and outside, are well documented by archaeological findings and written sources. Lastly, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the time of the Timurids, when science, culture, urban planning and economics significantly developed.