The Iwa­mi Gin­zan Sil­ver Mine in the south-west of Hon­shu Island is a clus­ter of moun­tains, ris­ing to 600 m and inter­spersed by deep riv­er val­leys fea­tur­ing the archae­o­log­i­cal remains of large-scale mines, smelt­ing and refin­ing sites and min­ing set­tle­ments worked between the 16th and 20th cen­turies. The site also fea­tures routes used to trans­port sil­ver ore to the coast, and port towns from where it was shipped to Korea and Chi­na. The mines con­tributed sub­stan­tial­ly to the over­all eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment of Japan and south-east Asia in the 16th and 17th cen­turies, prompt­ing the mass pro­duc­tion of sil­ver and gold in Japan. The min­ing area is now heav­i­ly wood­ed. Includ­ed in the site are fortress­es, shrines, parts of Kai­do trans­port routes to the coast, and three port towns, Tomo­gau­ra, Okido­mari and Yunot­su, from where the ore was shipped.