The 48th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee was held in Busan, Republic of Korea. Mongolia’s “Burial Sites of the Xiongnu Aristocrats”, representing the heritage of the country’s earliest state, was recently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Coinciding with this milestone, the “Khan’s road” event was held on August 1, 2026, at “Chikhertiin Zoo” in Bayantsagaan Soum, Tov Province, a site newly listed as a World Heritage location. Now in its fourth year, the “Khans Road” initiative was launched by the Chinggis Khaan National Museum to promote aristocratic heritage and develop a tourism route connecting Burkhan Khaldun - the ancestral homeland of Chinggis Khaan and a World Heritage site to Kharakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire.

Opening the event, Academician Chuluun, Director of the Chinggis Khaan National Museum, remarked: “Bayantsagaan soum is famous throughout Mongolia’s 330 soums for its excellent horses. The aristocratic burial complex of the Xiongnu, the people who rode these horses and established the first state in human history has been preserved here at Chikhertiin Zoo for approximately 2,000 years. Today, this Xiongnu heritage site has come under the protection not only of Mongolia but of all humanity. We are entering a remarkable historical era in which this heritage can be preserved, protected, promoted, and passed on to future generations.

Scholars have studied that the Xiongnu aristocratic monument in Chikhertiin Zoo is the earliest monument found in Mongolia and may belong to the period of Modun Chanyu. The inscription of a site representing the heritage of the earliest state in human history from a steppe-region soum on the World Heritage List is a historic first.”

During archaeological fieldwork, researchers not only excavated selected tombs but also conducted systematic surveys throughout the entire territory of the soum. As a result, more than 370 previously undocumented archaeological sites and monuments were newly identified and documented.

The monument in "Chikhertiin Zoo" is a complex connected to the history of Mongolia's first statehood, the Xiongnu Empire. In addition to the unique organizational features of the Xiongnu aristocratic tombs at Chikhertiin Zoo, the date of the monument belongs to the early stage when the Xiongnu Empire was powerful. During the field excavation research, in addition to conducting excavations at established tombs, an exploration work covering the entire sum territory was organized, resulting in the discovery and documentation of approximately over 370 new monuments.