TEHRAN (CHN) – Every year, the city of Kashan and its neighborhood districts are the host of hundreds of thousands of tourists during the festival of Gol-o-Golab (Rose and Rosewater), in which rosewater is extracted from the sweet-scented Mohammadi Rose, indigenous to Iran, during special and traditional ceremonies.

Kashan has abundant numbers of Mohammadi Rose from which high quality rosewater is extracted. The smell of this flower is amazing. Every year Kashan sends large amount of this rosewater to the holly city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia as a gift to wash the Kaba* with it.

This year the festival will be held from 16-24 of May and since this year has been called “Holly Prophet Mohammad Year” in Iran, some special programs will be held during this festival, including the seminar entitled “from rosewater to essence”, the ceremony of extracting rosewater from the flowers, the ceremony of dusting off pilgrimage places and washing them by rosewater, and the seminar of improving and developing flower breeding.

Kashan, Qamsar, Mashhad Ardehal, Niasar, and Joshaghan cities will be the hosts of tourists who are interested in observing this ceremony closely during these days. Abyaneh, a famous village near Kashan, which is famous for its traditional culture and special architectural style, is also one of the places which will host a lot of tourists during this time.

According to Abbas Motevali, head of public relations office of Kashan Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, the seminar of “From Rosewater to Essence” will be held during the first day of the festival in Kashan University. Ceremony of extracting rosewater from rose flower which is the main part of this festival will be held in Mohammadi flower Garden in Qamsar on the second day, the same thing will be held in Ghale Tepe entertainment site during the fourth day, in the garden of Niasar City Hall in the fifth day and in Joshaghan in the sixth day of the festival.

In addition, the ceremony of dusting off the pilgrimage places and washing the shrine of Ali ibn Mohammad Bagher Mausoleum will be held during the third day of the festival.

The seminar on improving the agriculture and developing flower breeding will be held in Kashan in the last day of the festival.

Motevali has estimated the number of the inbound tourists during this festival to Kahsan province to be some 1,370,000 individuals.

Kashan is a city in the province of Isfahan. The history of Kashan dates back to the Elamite period. The etymology of the city name comes from the Persian word Kashi, which translates into the English word “tile”. Kashan is internationally famous for manufacturing carpets, silk and other textiles.