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LONDON, (CAIS - edited by Shapour Suren-Pahlav) -- Recent rumours over the alleged submergence of the Tomb of Cyrus the Great have been circulated on an international scale. The news has been confirmed as being bogus.

The pseudo-tellers of this story claimed that the Sivand Dam was blown-up, which was later confirmed as baseless.

The tomb of Cyrus the Great situated behind the dam would never be under threat, since damage to the dam would cause a flooding away from the monument rather than towards it.

The perimeters of the future artificial lake behind the dam at its largest reach is 7 kilometres from Pasargadae site and 9 kilometres from Cyrus the Great’ Tomb located 45 meter above water level after inundation; -Persepolis is ten times farther than Pasargadae which is located 70 kilometres from the lake. Therefore, there are no threats to these two historical sites from submersion aspect of the Dam’s inundation.

However, it seems the rumour is propagated to divert attentions from the main threat to the historical site, which is the humidity. No officials are willing to comment on this issue.

The humidity change, artificially created by the lake behind the dam is going to be the key threat to the ancient site. No preliminary environmental research has been carried out to assess the affects of humidity upon the constructions at Pasargadae, consequently, the extent of future damage to the site remains unknown.  

Another catastrophe for Iranian heritage is that after the dam reservoir is filed, the Bolaghi Valley with all 130 (according to some experts 147) ancient sites spans from pre-Historic to the 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 Darius the Great.

Pasargadae and Persepolis historical sites have special places in Iranian hearts and minds, which are sacred as Kaba in Mecca for Muslims.

“The Tomb may not be the house of god [khāneh khodā, i.e. Ka'aba], but it is the house of our father and founder; we are today as a nation because of him [Cyrus the Great], and they [Islamic regime] should have respect that; I am a Muslim, but before that I am an Iranian and this place is dear to me, possibly more than Ka'aba – this is our Ka'aba - in fact this is our nation's most sacred place - they had no right to built a dam near his tomb”, said Mostafa a concerned and furious twenty-year-old Iranian visiting the monument.

"I’d like to see someone build a dam near al-Aqsa Mosque in Qods [Jerusalem], the regime would have sacrifice all Iranians to prevent that - they claim to be Iranian therefore they should care about us and our heritage, but instead the only thing that they care about is Palestinian and Arabs - this dam is an insult to our nation - if this dam resolves all the country's water problems, I’d prefer to die of thirst than see any danger come to our Pasargadae", said Masumeh another young-Iranian visiting Pasargadae.

The Sivand dam project has been one of the most condemned projects in post-revolution Iran due to its' immense threat to Iranian cultural heritage. Most Iranians are furious about the construction of the dam and argue that there is no objective in the world worthy to justify the construction of a dam, so close to Pasargadae.

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