Yemen to report Zabid new situation to UNESCO soon

SANA'A, March 12 (Saba) - The
government report on situation in historic city of Zabid has been finalized and
would be submitted
to the World Heritage Committee at UNESCO next week, the GPC-run almotamar.net has
reported.
Head of the General Organization for the Preservation of the Historic Cities
Abdullah Eissa said that the report, which is prepared according to the Committee's
recommendations
to the government late in 2009, contains the legal efforts and procedures the
government has made to reduce the violations that inscribed the city in the List of
World Heritage
in danger.
Eissa hailed the government efforts in this regard, saying that the ministerial
committee in cooperation with local and international organizations has managed to
improve
the situation of Zabid city.
The World Heritage Committee is to submit a report to a meeting of the UNESCO set
to be held in the coming months.
Zabid has been declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. In 2000, Zabid was
listed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Zabid is a town of 20,000 people on Yemen's western coastal plain.
It lies approximately ten miles from the Red Sea. It belongs to Hodeidah governorate.
Zabid is one of the oldest cities in Yemen. It was the capital of Yemen from the
13th to the 15th century and a center of the Arab and Muslim world due in large
part to
its famed University of Zabid and being a center of Islamic education.
The city was established in 204 in hijri calendar when it was taken over by
Mohammad bin Ziyad upon directives from the Caliph Haron Arrashid.
AF/AF