Shafaq News/ The Iraqi Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities announced that The "Darb Zubaydah" is now on the UNESCO tentative list.

In a statement, the Ministry said that the UNESCO included the road that connected Makkah to the Iraqi cities of Kufa and Baghdad during the Abbasid period is known as the Darb Zubaydah is now on its tentative list.

According to the international organization, this nomination is the first step of a more ambitious long-term program that aims at inscribing other hajj pilgrimage routes to create a solid multi-national World Heritage network of Islamic Pilgrimage Cultural Routes in the coming years.

The four Iraqi elements of the series are Umm Al-Qurun, Talhat, Sharaf, and Al-Aqaba.

The Hajj Pilgrimage Routes: The Darb Zubaydah is a transnational nomination jointly presented by Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Iraq. It comprises a series of key elements and stations dating from the Abbasid period that materialize the 1,300 km-long routes linking the town of Kufa in Iraq with Makkah. The segment of the Darb Zubaydah located in present-day Iraq covers approximately 1/5th of the total length of the route, while the others 4/5th are located in present-day Saudi Arabia.

The property counts 13 sites, four in Iraq and nine in Saudi Arabia, offering a complete overview of the ensemble of the technical and architectural features that equipped this extraordinary hajj route. The four Iraqi elements of the series are briefly presented below.