12 July 2003

For the first time, a precise map of the Babak citadel is to be produced by a team of experts carrying out research in the historical site.

Efforts to draw up the map, the first of its kind, started recently and once completed, it will greatly contribute to the research underway in the citadel.

Head of the research team Ali Reza Pashai said the citadel has not yet been fully explored and the usage of some of its parts are yet to be known.

"Mapping the Babak citadel, drawing its precise plan and producing its topography map are being carried out using sophisticated technology. The Iranian army is supposed to provide us with the aerial pictures of the citadel which could be used to assess the changes made in the citadel over the last couple of years," Pashai noted.

Exploration and research in the site started in 1996. Among works planned for this year are unearthing some rooms and mending fences of the staircase leading to the hilltop citadel.

Located above the Jomhour mountain near Kaleibar in the West Azarbaijan province, the citadel is believed by many historian to have been the stronghold of Persian hero Babak Khorramdin, who mounted a resistance campaign against the Arab invasion.