Cultural The Lines Heritage Value Evaluation Characteristic Analysis

As a composite type of cultural heritage,'cultural routes'is the routes of human communication and immigration with a defined coverage of space and time and specific historical functions. Since 1993, cultural route has been among the new-rising fields of heritage conservation around the world. The ICOMOS Charter on Cultural Routes, which presented the latest research achievement, has been approved on the 16th ICOMOS General Assembly at Quebec in October 2008.The'cultural routes'began with the inscription of the Route of Santiago de Compostela, hence there have been totally 6 cultural routes enlisted on the World Heritage List.The evaluation system of world cultural heritage is mainly composed of 4 components as following: criteria for assessment, statement of outstanding universal value, integrity and authenticity, and comparative analysis. Beside the above common components, the evaluation system for cultural routes has the exclusive components, i.e. 5 defining elements of cultural routes provided in the Charter on Cultural Routes. The defining elements of cultural routes includes context, content, cross-cultural significance as a whole, dynamic character, and setting. Defining elements are the criteria, based on which the cultural routes with outstanding universal values are evaluated. Defining elements of cultural routes, which present the fundamental characteristics of cultural routes and the distinctiveness from other types of cultural heritage, contribute to identification of the cultural routes and refining of the outstanding universal values.The dissertation aims to develop a systematic analysis to the characteristics of values of the 6 cultural routes on the World Heritage List, theoretically based on the ICOMOS Charter on Cultural Routes, to promote the reorganization and understanding of the evaluation characteristics of cultural route, and to deepen the understanding of the ICOMOS Charter on Cultural Routes, in order to contribute to the practice related to the heritage conservation of the cultural routes.