Fresh Call of ICHTO for Reducing Height of Jahan Nama Tower in Isfahan

29 June 2005

Deputy head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) has called for reducing the height of Jahan Nama Tower, which is being built in the vicinity of Isfahan’s historical Naqsh-e Jahan Square, so that it conforms to UNESCO standards.

Taha Hashemi told ILNA that national pride would suffer a blow if Naqsh-e Jahan is placed on UNESCO’s list of threatened international cultural heritage sites.

“A country with an ancient civilization and culture is not expected to put its cultural heritage at risk. That would be a disgrace,“ he declared.

“We expect the judiciary system to make public their views about Jahan Nama Tower and move to reduce its height so that it does not impact the significance of cultural heritage of Naqsh-e Jahan Square and to avert any decision by UNESCO to place the historical square in the list of endangered historical heritage.“

Hashemi said that ICHTO has taken legal action against the developers of Jahan Nama Tower.

“Isfahan province’s justice department is expected to issue a ruling on reducing the height of the tower ahead of any UNESCO debate relating to Iran.“

He said that the next government is also expected to defend the nation’s credibility pointing out that Iran has several hundred cultural heritage sites, of which only five have been registered by UNESCO. “It would be a disgrace if one of the five is moved to the list of endangered cultural heritage sites,“ he concluded.

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