For those of you that like to keep in touch with the new additions to the Tentative Lists: I've added an overview of the 10 most recent entries on the left side of the Tentative Page. Almost every week new Tentative Sites appear on the Unesco website, an I do my best to keep up with them.

Just a heads up. I see South Korea sites have been partially updated on this site, but 3-4 new sites have been added to the list for 2010 and 1 removed on top of the other additions. Its been over 2 weeks since its initial appearance on Unesco's website.

The WHC also has the annoying tendency of dating Tentative List additions to the past (presumably to the date when they were officially sent to the WHC?). That's why Las Pozas, Xilitla wasn't on our radar screens - I think it was only added last week or so, but it is dated end November!

Similarly, Sweden's addition "The Rise of Systematic Biology" was added recently but dated back to December... This one is a fascinating addition BTW: Sweden is basically attempting to succeed where the UK failed with "Darwin at Downe" with a Linneaus-themed site, by expanding the site to a transnational, serial format of the dimensions of Struve Geodetic Arc - including botanical gardens and parcs in France, Italy, Japan, Australia and South Africa.

A major hassle indeed!
I try to look for new additions quite regularly (by using the option Display All By Year), but the order in which the results are presented is confusing.
The total number of T sites is also not a perfect indicator, as sometimes sites are deleted too. So a +1 and -1 leads to the total staying the same and no change visible.

Thanks Els, this is helpful. [Please could you remove the Antonine Wall from the UK tentative list?]

Is anyone aware of a global Silk Road project?

In the last weeks, both India and Uzbekistan have put a "Silk Road sites" on their respective Tentative List - the Uzbek serial site contains 18 entities (looks like basically everything that may be vaguely connected to the Silk road in Uzbekistan - from Kokand to Termez to Vabkent minaret); the Indian site is an assembly of ancient Buddhist sites mostly in Uttar Pradesh (thus with little relationship to what Europeans would associate with the Silk Road).

UNESCO per se has been sponsoring "Silk road" work since 1988 - badged as "The Silk Roads Project". See
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/es/ev.php-URL_ID=36644&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=2 01.html
This particular project ended in 1997 and a specific WHS related project seems to have been kicked off in 2005 under the title" Serial World Heritage Nomination of the Silk Roads" -at which point it took on a Chinese/Central Asian aspect.

The first PDF document contains some fine maps towards the end - they cover most of Eurasia as well as E Africa! There seems to have been a subtle concatentation of "Silk Route" and "Spice Route". A fine Chinese produced book I have ("The Silk Road on Land and Sea" 1989) considers the Indian Ocean Sea routes as being just as much part of the Silk Route as the land parts. This of course supports Chinese views about their exploration credentials long before the johhny-come-lately Europeans arrived in Africa/SE Asia! My book doesn't however include aspects within India - through which of course China was a major recipient of knowledge/influences!

As you will see from the document, UNESCO has identified 5 elements for a "Silk Route" - Desert, Maritime, Steppe, Nomad and Buddhist. Only the Nepal part of the latter was described however - which isn't even shown on the maps although an Indian section is running from Bay of Bengal up to Taxila etc!

The various meetings which have subsequently taken place with a WHS emphasis have only included China plus the Central Asian Stans (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen and Uzbek) - meetings have taken place in Xian, Turfan and Almaty.
So no apparent "official" involvement within the UNESCO sponsored activities so far of either of those other countries which have T List entries (or of others beyond which could claim Silk route sites)
a. Iran - which has its own T List Silk Route/Road site (added 2008)
b. India - despite its very strange "Buddhist Route" T List entry badged under "Silk Road"!

The UNWTO (World Tourism Organisation) is another "player" in this game - it has a "Silk Road Project" http://www.unwto.org/silk_road/index.php
involving 24 countries (an interesting list which includes e.g DPRK, Georgia and Saudi Arabia!) and going back to 1991. But India isn't one of the countries involved!

Kenya and Poland just have updated their Tentative Lists too!

Update on the Silk Road:
Both Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan also have a Silk Road Site now (in both cases including dozens of individual sites)
http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5518/
http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5521/