Bisotun was registered on UNESCO’s
World Heritage List on July 13, 2006 Bisotun, an ancient Iranian site bearing
bas-reliefs and inscriptions of Darius the Great, received the world heritage
certificate of UNESCO during a ceremony in Kermashah on Tuesday.
Tehran,
3 July 2008: Bisotun, an ancient Iranian site bearing bas-reliefs and
inscriptions of Darius the Great, received the world heritage certificate of
UNESCO during a ceremony in Kermashah on Tuesday.
The
certificate was handed over by program specialist Ms. Junko Taniguchi from the
UNESCO office in Tehran to the Kermashah cultural heritage officials, the
Persian service IRNA reported.
UNESCO grants the official document to the sites and monuments, which have
previously been registered on the World Heritage List.
Located in western Iran some 30 kilometers east of the provincial capital
Kermanshah and at the foot of the Zagros Mountains, Bisotun was registered on
UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 13, 2006 during the 30th session of UNESCO
s World Heritage Committee, held in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Taniguchi compared Bisotun with Persepolis and the Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat,
other Iranian ancient sites registered on UNESCO s World Heritage List, and
said that each site faces some urgent problems.
She described the lichen growing on the bas-reliefs and inscriptions, and
construction of industrial projects on the perimeter of Bisotun as significant
threats posed by the forces of nature and by humans towards the site.
According to Taniguchi, UNESCO has consulted experts around the world to find a
solution to the lichen problem.
In August 2006, UNESCO s World Heritage Center sent a letter to the Cultural
Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization demanding an explanation of the
reason for the Kermanshah Petrochemical Company establishing the industrial
town of Hersin on the perimeter of Bisotun.
Following the letter, an Iranian court ordered the company to cease all
operations in the area.
