TEHRAN – Two historic houses in Lar, a city in Fars Province, have been illegally razed to the ground by their owner, ISNA reported on April 1. 

Khashayar Shabani who presides over the province’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department said that Sharifi Mansion and Bibi Mahak were destroyed despite warnings issued by the department.

There has been an alarming rise in similar incidents over the past few months.
In July 2016, news broke that the historic house of Queen Touran, the third wife of Reza Pahlavi, the first Pahlavi king, was partly destroyed overnight. 

In a similar act last December, the owner of Villa Namazee, situated in Tehran’s Niavaran neighborhood, reportedly demolished the iconic 1960s edifice to construct a 20-floor hotel.

AFM/MG