From as early as 2003 consideration was being given to the development of a transboundary nomination for the Silk Roads (Jing & van Oers 2004). A series of sub-regional workshops were then developed, in Almaty in November 2005, Turfan in August 2006, Samarkand in October 2006 (UNESCO 2006), Dushanbe in April 2007, Xi’an in June 2008, and Almaty in May 2009 (UNESCO 2009a), all of which culminated in the first meeting of the Coordinating Committee for the Silk Roads Serial Nomination, in Xian, China, 3-6 November 2009 (UNESCO 2009). Importantly, as a result of these meetings a Silk Roads concept paper was developed, initially in 2006 by Professor Henry Cleere (2006) and refined at the subsequent meeting at Dushanbe (UNESCO 2007). This defined the geographical and historical scope of the Silk Roads in relation to possible World Heritage nominations.