Tagh-e-Bostan is a magnificent site of ancient history in the western Iranian plateau. Reza Kamali from Tehran reports that 7 years ago, immediately after the advent of a popular movement to apply for the recognition of the site by the UNESCO as a World Heritage, a series of unexpected operations began to happen in and on the vicinity of this site with the clear aim of its destruction and stopping such recognition.

All sorts of so-called “development projects” were introduce, including the construction of a rail-road and erecting a large dome on a near by religious site that altered the whole scenery of Tagh-e-Bostan eliminating the chances of the site to be recognized as a World heritage.

Keeping the main parts of the site exposed to natural elements was another neglecting policy.

When finally last year the Cultural Heritage Organization declared that it has decided to apply to UNESCO and intends to “prepare” the site for that reason, it turned the whole site into a construction site and brought in machinery and untrained work force – a situation that resembled a mining operation rather than repairing an ancient site. Then the surprising part of the story was the revealed. The Organization declared it never had the intention of sending the Tagh-e-Bostan file to UNESCO.

Immediately all the previous reports and news items relevant to Tagh-e-Bostan was removed from the Internet sites controlled by the government.

The devastation inflicted on Tagh-e-Bostan is so extensive that even if an authority would decide to apply for recognition by the UNESCO, it will not pass the criteria used to select a site for that purpose.

By Al Arabiya

An Egyptian jihad leader, with self-professed links to the Taliban, called for
the “destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt,” drawing ties between the Egyptian relics and Buddha statues, local media reported this week.

Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Islamist leader twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such “idols.”

“All Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam to remove such idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues,” he said on Saturday during a television interview on an Egyptian private channel, widely watched by Egyptian and Arab audiences.

“God ordered Prophet Mohammed to destroy idols,” he added. “When I was with the Taliban we destroyed the statue of Buddha, something the government failed to do.”

His comments came a day after thousands of ultraconservative Islamists gathered in Tahrir Square to call for the strict application of Sharia law in the new constitution.

But in retaliation to Gohary’s remarks, the vice president of Tunisia’s Ennahda party, Sheikh Abdel Fattah Moro, called the live program and told Gohary that famous historic military commander Amr ibn al-Aas did not destroy statues when he conquered Egypt.

“So who are you to do it?” he wondered. “The Prophet destroyed the idols because people worshiped them, but the Sphinx and the Pyramids are not worshiped.”

Gohary, 50, is well-known in Egypt for his advocacy of violence, Egypt Independent reported.

“He was sentenced twice, one of the two sentences being life imprisonment. He subsequently fled Egypt to Afghanistan, where he was badly injured in the American invasion. In 2007, he traveled from Pakistan to Syria, which then handed him over to Egypt. After Mubarak’s fall in early 2011, he was released from prison by a judicial ruling,” the newspaper added.

In recent months, fears have surfaced that the ultra-conservative Salafi political powers may soon wish to debate new guidelines over Egyptian antiquities.

Islamists have swept the recent presidential and parliamentary elections in the country’s post-revolutionary stage, with the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists rising to political power.

“The fundamental Salafis have demanded to cover Pharaonic statues, because they regard them to be idols,” Egyptian author on ancient history Ahmed Osman told Al Arabiya English, explaining that Salafi Muslims follow conservative religious principles which view statues and sculptures as prohibited in Islam.

“But so far the government has done nothing to indicate what is the future of Egyptian antiquities,” adds Osman.

Many hope that Egypt’s new President Mohammed Mursi will help usher better preservation of Egypt’s proud cultural heritage. Egyptian officials have recently announced the country will reveal more of its ancient buried treasures.

The tomb of Queen Meresankh III, the granddaughter of Khufu, of Great Pyramid fame, is set to be opened to tourists later this year, with the last resting places of five high priests also slated to be put on show.

Officials are also believed to be reopening the underground Serapeum temple at Sakkara, to the south of Cairo.

By: Reza Kamali – Iran

Translation Anahid Amin

There has been a rumor for sometime about the plunder of ancient artifacts in Yazd, Iran, excavated by people who are equipped with proper tools. Following the spread of this rumor,  Bahram Rezaei, director of Cultural Heritage Office in Yazd, has denied the news by saying that: “The people responsible for the destruction of 5 to 10 thousand year old bas-reliefs in Ardakan, a city in Yazd province, and the Hossein-Abad village were most likely searching for mines and did not intend to excavate for antiques”. He also has said that the heavy machinery and tools used are also related to mining. Although mines are legally considered public property and those searching for mines should obtain license for this purpose, no one knows that how this operation has happened. Rezaei claims that an investigation has begun since October. He has added that the number of bas-reliefs are 12 and 6 of them have been found intact since the beginning of this investigation. There is no explanation for how his Office has come to know that the total number is 12.  Local people report that there are many broken and scattered stones after the excavators left the area. They say that there have probably been many artifacts that are now unavailable.