TEHRAN -- Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia, is to receive a world heritage certificate from UNESCO during a ceremony at the site on Monday.

Several cultural figures from the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO), UNESCO office in Tehran, Fars Governor’s Office, and the municipalities of Shiraz and Marvdasht are attending the ceremony, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Sunday.
UNESCO grants the official document to the sites and monuments, which have previously been registered on the World Heritage List. Persepolis was registered on World Heritage List in 1979.
The historical site of Persepolis is Iran’s third monument that received UNESCO certificate during the past year. The other two are Bisotun in Kermanshah and Bam and its Cultural Landscape heritage property.
Persepolis, the ancient capital of the Achaemenid kings of Iran is located about 32 miles (51 km) northeast of Shiraz in the province of Fars in southwestern Iran.
Though archaeologists have discovered evidence of prehistoric settlement, inscriptions indicate that construction of the city began under Darius I the Great (reigned 522–486 BC), who, as a member of a new branch of the royal house, made Persepolis the capital of Persia proper, replacing Pasargadae, the burial place of Cyrus the Great.
Built in a remote and mountainous region, Persepolis was inconveniently located for a royal residence and was therefore visited mainly in the spring.
In 330 BC Alexander plundered the city and burned the palace of Xerxes, probably to symbolize the end of his Pan Hellenic war of revenge. In 316 BC Persepolis was still the capital of Persia as a province of the Macedonian empire. The city gradually declined in the Seleucid period and after, with only its ruins attesting to its ancient glory.