TEHRAN – Iran’s tourism minister said a national conference will be held in Tehran to celebrate and promote the prehistoric UNESCO inscription of the Koramabad Valley, which was added to the World Heritage List in July.
Minister Seyed Reza Salehi Amiri made the announcement during his visit to Lorestan, where he attended a local ceremony showing the valley inscription, Mehr’s news agency reported on Saturday.
For upcoming events (in Tehran), they bring together experts, scholars and representatives from Lorestan and across the country, Salehi Amiri said in a televised interview.
“We discussed with local and provincial officials and lawmakers and held national conferences in Tehran with the participation of experts from Lorestan and across Iran.
He said the site should be introduced globally through international media. “Iran’s 29th World Heritage Site belongs to Lorestan and can make great use of this ability,” he said.
Salehi-Amiri also highlighted plans to pursue the inscription of the World Heritage Site at Falak-ol-Aflak Castle in Khorramabad (the capital of Khorramabad province). “If the site is engraved on the World Heritage List, it belongs to all humanity. Foreign tourists spend time looking at these sites, and this other property of the ancient era has not yet been registered,” he said.
Carved at the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Paris in July, the prehistoric site of Khorramabad Valley includes five caves and one rock shelter. The area holds evidence of human occupations from 63,000 years ago, with archaeological remains from the mid- to upper-to-top period of the Paleostone period.
The site uncovers Musterian and Varadoian cultures and provides insight into early human migration from Africa to Eurasia. The discoveries of iconic objects and refined stone tools highlight the cognitive and technological developments of homo sapiens in the Zagros Mountains.
Among the most important places is Yafteh Cave. This includes some of the earliest evidence of the regional symbolic behavior, but Ghamari Cave retains traces of Neanderthal occupation.
As Salehi-Amiri said, Iran has recorded over 1 million heritage sites, of which around 43,000 have been officially registered. Lorestan is ranked as the second state of the country in terms of registered heritage properties.
morning