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.CAIS NEWS© ARCHAEOLOGICAL & CULTURAL NEWS OF THE IRANIAN WORLD |
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Date for Destruction of Iranian Heritage by the Islamic Republic set for March 2007
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09 November 2006 |
LONDON, (Shapour Suren-Pahlav - CAIS) -- As the result of inundation of Sivand Dam in Fars Province the ancestral heritage of Iranian nation in Bolaghi Valley, will be buried under millions of gallons of water in five months time. Based on the Islamic Republic' Ministry of Energy, the Dam is set to be inaugurated by the end of the current Iranian year which will fall in late March 2007.
The catastrophe for Iranian heritage is that after the dam reservoir is filed,
the Bolaghi Valley which contains well over 130 (according to some experts 147) ancient settlements from
pre-Historic to Sasanian dynastic era will be submerged including a section of
the Achaemenid Imperial’s Road (Rāh-e Šāhī) and the recently discovered
Achaemenid palace denoted to the Darius the Great.
In a press conference held on Nov. 6, Parviz Fattah, Islamic Republic's Minister of Energy, said that the plan will be carried through by the end of this year while, according to him, all the negotiations between the Ministry and Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) have already been settled; -the kind of negotiation that the loosing party is the Iranian nation.
Not surprisingly, the Islamic regime' Minster has also falsely declared that the Energy Ministry has provided ICHTO with the 470,000 Euro to build Pasargadae Museum near the historic Bolaghi Valley. The claim is being rejected by Mohammad Hassan Talebian, director of Parse-Pasargadae Research Center.
This
issue have become one of main concerns for Iranian nation, which they are hopelessly
witnessing the destruction of their heritage in hand of the despot theocratic
regime in Iran. Pasargadae and Persepolis historical sites have special
places in Iranian hearts and minds, which are sacred as K'aba in Mecca for
Muslims.
The perimeters of the future artificial lake behind the
dam at its largest reach is 7 kilometres from Pasargadae site, 9 kilometres
from the mausoleum of the Cyrus the Great and nearly 70 kilometrs from
Persepolis. Although there are no threats to these two
historical sites from submersion aspect of Dam’s inundation, but the humidity changes, which artificially would be created by the dam, are going
to be the key threat. No
preliminary environmental research has been carried out to assess the affects of
humidity upon the ancient constructions at Pasargadae. Therefore, the extent of the
future damages to the site remains unknown.
The plague of dam construction has become a means for Islamic regime to destroy ancient Iranian Heritage in the name of development projects. Although the dam constructions are economically important, but in Iran have threatened the country’s rich cultural heritage. One of the most important examples of such is construction of Sivand Dam in Bolaghi Valley. Ever since the initial phase of Sivand Dam construction, large groups of Archaeologists and experts from Iran and across the globe have become engaged in an emergency salvation project to save the remaining evidence at Bolaghi Valley before they are immersed under water, making it the biggest salvation project ever in the history of Iran’s Archaeological activities.
Archaeologists have no choice but to end their rescue operations in Bolaghi Valley in a month time to submit their final report before the Dam floods the entire area.
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"History is the Light on the Path to Future" |
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Encyclopaedia Iranica
The British Institute of Persian Studies "Persepolis Reconstructed"
The British Museum
The Royal Asiatic Society
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