The
Silk Road was constructed during the reign of the
Achaemenid [1] dynasty and was known at the time as
’Rah-e Shahi (The Imperial Road).
Given the advantage of having access to the main road,
several villages emerged along this historical route,
reported CHN.
More
than 60 such villages are located in Tehran’s 19th and 20th
municipality districts which extends from Qal-e Morghi to
Hassan-abad
and covers an area of 111 hectares. Some of the villages belong to
the prehistoric era while others go back to the pre-Islamic period.
Though some of the villages are in ruins, several of them have
survived and are still inhabited.
According to a sociologist Vahid Kalhor, who is involved in research
studies on the history of Rey, the villages date back to the
pre-Islamic era.
“The Silk Road was built on the order of the first Emperor of the
Achaemenid dynasty. It began from the village of Khalariz and was
projected to facilitate the transportation of goods to southern
Iran. It was later renamed Rah-e Shahi and was paved by cobblestones
during the Sassanid dynastic era,“ said Kalhor.
An expert of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization
(ICHTO), Khosrow Pour-Bakhshandeh, who was in charge of Rey studies,
said that there are more than 60 villages in Tehran province whose
archeological potentials have largely gone unnoticed by the general
public.
These villages include Chal-Tarkhan which possesses cultural
heritage from the 9th to 12th centuries. There are numerous
stucco designs in buildings located in these villages which are
currently being maintained at an Italian museum.
The cultural heritages of these villages have been plundered by
smugglers.
Pour-Bakhshandeh said that the villages have mud-brick structures
which should be registered by ICHTO.
As cases in point, he cited the village of Khomar-abad and a mound
by the same name in that village dating back to the first millennium
and the village of Shams-abad and a mound by the same name dating
back to Arsacid or Sassanid dynastic eras.
He said that some of the villages in Tehran province are from the
post-Islamic era. They hold many symbols from different periods of Iranian
history.
Deputy Mayor of Tehran Municipality’s District 19 for cultural
affairs Reza Rezanejad said that there are many villages in the
district which have maintained their historical identities. He
citing Ali Abad Qajar and Abdol Abad as examples but added that the
mud-brick domes of mosques have been destroyed and their walls have
also collapsed.
“Some villages dating back to the Iron Age such as
Mamourin, located in the vicinity of newly constructed Tehran International Airport, has completely been destroyed and only a
historical mound remains from the village.
Cultural
heritage being unearthed from the village are being maintained at a
warehouse of the new Airport,“ Reza-nejad
concluded.
[1]
CAIS Correction with thanks to Ms. Gougouli
Farmanfarmaian: Silk Road did not start until the
Parthian dynastic era, to be precise 105 BCE.
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Source: CHN
