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CAIS ARCHAEOLOGICAL & CULTURAL NEWS^©

07 September 2005

Excavations in Bam Citadel led to the discovery of two underground cubbyholes in the barrack section of the Citadel.

According to experts, the historical Bam Citadel, which is one of the biggest earthen structures in the world and was registered on UNESCO World Heritage List dates back to the Sassanid era, but the exact time of it is not yet known.

“In excavations of the east side of the main gate of the barrack, we discovered two closed doors. After opening them, two small underground cubbyholes were discovered,” says Eskandar Mokhtari, head of Bam Salvation Project.

According to him, the rooms are connected to each other and due to the destruction of their roofs, they have been filled with soil and debris. The original body of the rooms had been made of adobe on which some brick reconstructions have been done.

One of the discovered rooms is 225x252 square centimeters and the other 323x252 square centimeters. Of the first room just some small parts are left intact. Due to the dampness, the adobe structure of the rooms has decayed. A shell and a piece of metal have been found in the room.

After the earthquake that hit Bam two years ago, the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Iran with the cooperation of some of the world organizations such as UNESCO have started some activities for the salvation of the historical sites of Bam city.

In the 29th session of UNESCO World Heritage committee which was held in Durban in South Africa, UNESCO praised the so-far attempts of Iranian officials and countries helping in the project including Japan and Italy.

The earthen city of Bam is one for the most important historical and cultural cities in the world which dates back to 2000 years ago. Last year in the UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee held in China, some decisions were made for Bam Salvation and Bam was registered in UNESCO World Heritage List.

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