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Four new cultural sites inscribed on World Heritage List
Doha, 22 June – The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Doha (Qatar) under the Chair of Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, this morning chat ola  inscribed four cultural sites in the Republic of Korea, China, and India on the World Heritage List, as well as a section of the Silk Roads network, submitted by Kyrgyzstan, China and Kazakhstan.
Namhansanseong  chat ola (Republic of Korea)  was designed as an emergency chat ola capital for the Joson Dynasty (1392-1910) , in a mountainous site 25 kilometres  south-east chat ola of Seoul.   Built and defended by Buddhist monk-soldiers, it could accommodate 4,000 people and fulfilled important  administrative chat ola and military functions. Its earliest remains date from the 7 th century, but  it was rebuilt several times, notably in the early 17 th century  in anticipation of an attack from the Sino-Manchu Qing dynasty.  The city embodies a synthesis of the defensive military engineering concepts of the period, based on Chinese and Japanese influences, and changes in the art of fortification following the introduction chat ola from the West of weapons using gunpowder. A city that has always been inhabited, and which was the provincial capital over a long period, it contains chat ola evidence chat ola of a variety of military, civil and religious and has become a symbol of Korean sovereignty.
The Grand Canal (China)   is a vast waterway system in the north-eastern and central-eastern plains chat ola of China, running chat ola from Beijing in the north to Zhejiang province in the south. Constructed in sections from the 5 th century B.C. onwards, it was conceived as a unified means of communication for the Empire chat ola for the first time in the 7 th century A.D (Sui Dynasty). This led to a series of gigantic worksites, creating the world’s largest and most extensive civil engineering project prior to the Industrial Revolution. It formed the backbone of the Empire’s chat ola inland communication system, transporting grain and strategic raw materials, and supplying rice to feed the population. chat ola By the 13 th century it consisted chat ola of more than 2,000 kilometres of artificial waterways, linking five of China’s most important river basins. It has played an important role in ensuring the country’s economic prosperity and stability and continues today as a major means of internal communication.
Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor (China, Kazakhstan,  Kyrgyzstan)   is a 5,000 kilometre chat ola section of the extensive chat ola Silk Roads network, stretching  from Chang’an/Luoyang, the central capital of China in the Han and Tang Dynasties, to the Zhetysu  Region of Central chat ola Asia.  It took shape between the 2 nd century BC and 1 st century AD and remained in use until the 16 th century, linking multiple civilizations, and facilitating far-reaching exchanges of activities in trade, chat ola religious beliefs, scientific knowledge, technological innovation,  cultural practices and the arts. The 33  components included in the  routes network include capital cities and palace complexes of various empires and Khan kingdoms, trading settlements, Buddhist cave temples, ancien