Maliheh Mehdiabadi said that experts of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) had previously submitted the dossier of the site to UNESCO to register it on the World Heritage List.

“The experts of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) who traveled to Iran to study the dossier were also fascinated by it,” she added.

However, she expressed concern about the plan to establish the Taq-e Bostan aerial cable cabin in Kermanshah Province, which may ruin Bistun’s chance of being registered on the UNESCO world heritage list.

Located 30 kilometers east of the provincial capital city of Kermanshah, Bistun contains a number of unique ancient sites from the Median, Achaemenid, Parthian, Seleucid, and Sassanid eras.

The Bistun Inscription, probably the most important monument of the site, is a trilingual statement of Darius I in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian. The inscription, which is approximately 15 meters in height and 25 meters in width, is located on a relatively inaccessible cliff 100 meters above an ancient road connecting the capitals of Babylonia and Media, Babylon and Ecbatana. However, the site can easily be viewed from below.