(Iran Daily) - Iran
will be registered on United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO)
heritage list as the forerunner in developing the
windmill industry in the world, CHN reported.
The country boasts of the highest number of these
traditional structures with a total of 2,000
windmills.
Hamid Shahinpour, a researcher and instructor at
Sharif University of Technology in an article on
Iranian windmills called on officials to pave the
way for the registration of this technology on
UNESCO list.
“Some time ago, I wrote an article titled
’Using Renewable Energies in Eastern Iran’
that deeply interested Mohammad Beheshti, head of
Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism
Organization’s Research Center,“ he noted,
adding that Beheshti, who was aware of the
significance of registering windmills, decided to
pursue its registration on the UN body’s natural
heritage list.
However, acting head of the organization, Mohit
Tabatabaei believed that windmills should be
registered on UNESCO’s spiritual heritage list
since they fall in the category of traditional
technology.
Some UNESCO experts maintain that they should be
registered on the natural heritage list.
However, professor Shariar Adl, an expert on
Iranian heritage at UNESCO said that registration
of Iranian windmills on UNESCO heritage list is
impossible.
Shahinpour believed that even Holland, which is
called ’A Land of Windmills’, has taken this
traditional technology from the Iran’s Sistan
province during the Crusades.
Iranian windmills date back to 2,800 years ago,
while the industry in Holland has a history of 350
years.
