The World Heritage Committee, during it’s 39th session on June 28, 2015-July 8, 2015 approved the inscription of a cultural site in Turkey for inclusion on the World Heritage List. 

Diyarbakir Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape (Turkey). Located on an escarpment of the Upper Tigres River Basin that is part of the so-called Fertile Crescentthe fortified city of Diyarbakir and the landscape around has been an important centre since the Hellenistic period, through the Roman, Sassanid, Byzantine, Islamic and Ottoman times to the present. The site encompasses the Amida Mound, known as İçkale (inner castle), the 5.8km-long city walls of Diyarbakir with their numerous towers, gates, buttresses, and 63 inscriptions from different periods, as well as Hevsel Gardens, a green link between the city and the Tigris that supplied the city with food and water.

The World Heritage Committee, during it’s 39th session on June 28, 2015-July 8, 2015 approved the inscription of a second cultural site in Iran for inclusion on the World Heritage List.

Underground houses; Maymand, Iran

Cultural Landscape of Maymand (Iran) — Maymand is a self-contained, semi-arid area at the end of a valley at the southern extremity of Iran’s central mountains. The villagers are semi-nomadic agro-pastoralists. They raise their animals on mountain pastures, living in temporary settlements in spring and autumn. During the winter months they live lower down the valley in cave dwellings carved out of the soft rock (kamar), an unusual form of housing in a dry, desert environment.  This cultural landscape is an example of a system that appears to have been more widespread in the past and involves the movement of people rather than animals.

The World Heritage Committee, during it’s 39th session on June 28, 2015-July 8, 2015 approved the inscription of a cultural site in Iran for inclusion on the World Heritage List.

Susa (Iran) — Located in the south-west of Iran, in the lower Zagros Mountains, the property encompasses a group of archaeological mounds rising on the eastern side of the Shavur River, as well as Ardeshir’s palace, on the opposite bank of the river. The excavated architectural monuments include administrative, residential and palatial structures. Susa contains several layers of superimposed urban settlements in a continuous succession from the late 5^th millennium BCE until the 13^th century CE. The site bears exceptional testimony to the Elamite, Persian and Parthian cultural traditions, which have largely disappeared.

UK signs 1954 convention on protecting treasures in war zone
A major international agreement designed to protect cultural property during military conflict is to be finally ratified by the UK.

1954 Hague Convention, set up after the second world war to protect archaeological and historical sites, works of art, manuscripts, books and other objects.

More than 115 countries are party to the agreement, including all United Nations Security Council members, except for the UK.

On June 21 2015, Iranian cultural activists lost one of their important friends, a cultural personality with scientific approach to the Iranian history and cultural heritage.

Dr. Shahriar Adl was the influential figures who put a tremendous endeavor to register many of Iranian heritage. He was a member of French Organization for Scientific Studies. He was also the head of the committee commissioned to prepare “The History of Middle Asia”, a academic work that was bestowed with the UNESCO’s Cultural Medallion in 2009. 

Dr. Adl had studied History of Sciences at Sorbonne, as well as General History of Art, Archeology of the Orient, and the History of Islamic Arts in the Louver School. His doctorate degree was on Iranian and Mid-Asian History.

Dr. Adl, together with Dr. Varjavand and Mr. Amini were the main figures who could save Perspolis from the cluches oF Mr. Khalkhali whose aim was to destroy this unique archeological site.

He also had a major role in the registration of Pasargad site as a world cultural heritage. Later, as the Sivand Dam was completed and threatened this important site, he acted firmly to delimit the height of the lake behind the dam so that it would not harm the site of Cyrus the Great Mausoleum.

Pasargad Heritage Foundation shares this important loss and extends its condolences to his family and many friends and admirers.

His memory will shine even more as the time passes.

Sepahsalar School is one of the most majestic and eye-catching historical buildings in Tehran, the capital of Iran. It is a 135 year-old School, design to reflect the wonders of Grand School and Chahr-Bagh School of Isfahan, as well as the Sofia School of Istanbul.  Built by the architects of Qajar period, it was listed on the Register of National Buildings 25 years before the Revolution of 1978.

The construction of a trade center adjacent to the School has put this building on the verge of destruction. The excavation of the soil and scraping the external walls of the school has rendered the building in a dire situation. The height of trade center building is two meters above the top of the School disturbing its traditional line of sight.

According to official news agency of IRI (ISNA), in reference to his actions to stop the project, the manger of the Sepahsalar Theological School has stated: “I have informed the Tehran Municipality and the Cultural Heritage Organization about the situation. They have visited the site and although everything shows that the operations are illegal, no action has been taken”.

 IRNA, the official news agency of Islamic Republic of Iran, has published a report on the illegal actions of two employees of Cultural Heritage Organization who have authorized the destruction of Choghā Mīsh site, in Khuzestan in western Iran, by accepting bribes. The amount accepted is a sum of $700,000.00. IRNA reports that both of the employees have been dismissed from their jobs without any further legal action. Choghā Mīsh is an ancient site in Iran, with at least 8000 years of history which is believed to be the first place where writing has been invented. The remains of an ancient city made of baked mud bricks, supposed to be as old as the age of first writings, was scattered through the site that has been demolished.

Last year a number of historical houses in the ancient city of Yazd were destructed upon the orders of the representative of Ayatollah Khamenei. The reason was to make space for new religious gathering sites. The protests of friends of historical sites got nowhere and the Cultural Heritage Organization (CHO) whose mission is to preserve historical sites kept silent. Now, we have received new news that yet another historical site that was situated behind Molla Esmail Mosque is has been destroyed. This time CHO has risen its voice but to explain why this has happened. It has announced that “It was suppose to build an office for the Leader’s Representative behind this mosque but they have destroyed a historic house by mistake. We have sent a letter to the Friday Imam so that they rebuild the house as it was before!”

By Dr. Kaveh Farrokh

The article below “Fortifications” by Wolfram Kleiss in the Encyclopedia Iranica was originally published on December 15, 1999 and last Updated on January 31, 2012. Kleiss provides an overview of the fortified passages and defenses of the Sassanians, some of which can be traced back to the Achaemenid era.

This article is available in the print volumes of the Encyclopedia Iranica (Vol. X, Fasc. 1, pp. 102-106).

Kindly note that the article below contains pictures and captions that do not appear in the Encyclopedia Iranica version.

==============================

The present article deals with the fortified passages and defenses that are implied under the term bārū. Certain passes in Persia still feature barriers going back to the Achaemenid period. An example is the stone wall at the Kotal-e Sangar in Fārs, which bars the way from Persepolis and Bīšāpūr to Ḵūzestān on the saddle (not a real pass) between the Mamassanī plain (plain of Deh-e Now) and the Fahlīān plain, and which is identical with the medieval and modern caravan route (today’s modern highway between Shiraz and Ahvāz). The rubble wall that by now has almost entirely disappeared was originally 1,230 m long and extended between both sides of the saddle’s rugged, steeply rising rock faces. The construction has been associated with a wall mentioned by Arrian (Anabasis 3.17), which the Uxians are said to have erected as a customs-barrier on the road between Ḵūzestān and Fārs, and around which Alexander had made a great détour on his expedition from Susa to Persepolis before taking it by surprise (Stein, pp. 39-44; Kleiss, p. 213, fig. 1).

Another wall (Kleiss, p. 214, Fig. 2) was built on top of the pass 36 km east of Farrāšband and 28 km west of the modern city of Fīrūzābād in the province of Fārs. It overlooks the road between the Sasanian settlements around Farrāšband and the Sasanian round city of Gōr (q.v.) with the bridge over the river west of Fīrūzābād, and is, at the same time, a barrier similar to the one in the Qalʿa-ye Doḵtar area north of Gōr (present-day Fīrūzābād, q.v.), a fortification at the northern access to the plain of Fīrūzābād (Huff). The barrier on the pass extends over a length of about 200 m in a fairly straight line from northwest to southeast in the shape of a ruined rubble wall that was once of considerable height. On the eastern side of the wall lies a heap of stones, the remains of a small halting-place or a tower, the exact measures of which are unknown. The dating of the barrier is unclear; perhaps it was built in the Sasanian period and continued being used in the Islamic period.

In an article published online on CNN.com last month, Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO talks about the destruction of cultural heritage by ISIS and related security issues.
Bokova writes: “The pillage of the Mosul museum by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria displayed a violence rarely seen since the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyian. The bulldozing of the archaeological site of Nimrud marked a new step in the cultural cleansing underway in Iraq. These acts are a deliberate attack against civilians, minorities, heritage sites and traditions. In the minds of terrorists, murder and destruction of culture are inherently linked.”

Bokova points out that the true nature of this conflict is a war against people. By destroying culture and cultural heritage sites these terrorist groups are attempting to crush free thinking and to ensure oppression through domination. The Islamist terrorists forbid girls to go to school, kill journalists and vandalize and destroy museums. They destroy all symbols that embody freedom of thought and respect for cultural diversity.
In her excellent article, Bokova writes that when culture is under attack, we must respond with more knowledge, and with ever greater effort to work to explain the importance of humanity’s shared heritage. Bokova also asks all young people, especially in Iraq and elsewhere to claim their national heritage as their own
Articles such as Bokova’s article importantly point out that terrorists are using destruction of national heritage as a way to destabilize populations, spread terror, and encourage violence and threaten the security of the country and the region.
To read this article go to: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/07/opinions/bokova-isis-artifacts-destruction/