Action to save minarets

A group of mediaeval minarets in the Afghan city of Herat could be saved thanks to the closure of a road threatening the structure.

The minarets, standing at more than 30m high, are all that remain of what a brilliantly decorated complex for Islamic learning and devotion on the Silk Road on the outskirts of the western Afghan city.

Just over a century ago, more than a dozen minarets stood in Herat, part of a madrasa-mosque complex built in the 15th century.

(China Daily 10/19/2007 page10)