TEHRAN – Iran’s heritage body plans to lead several restoration projects at the village of Laft on the southern Qeshm Island with the aim of bringing fifteen historical mansions and houses back to their heyday glory.

In line with the implementation of the fifth article of the maintenance of national monuments law approved in the Iranian calendar year 1309 (1930-1931) and in order to protect the owners and holders of historical monuments, 15 historic houses are to be restored in the port of Laft, Mehr quoted a provincial official as saying on Monday.

Having many cultural and tourism attractions, the village can be considered as a source of income both for the Qeshm’s Free Zone Organization and the local community, added Ashkan Mokhtari, an official with Hormozgan province’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Department.

Perched on a rocky slope in the Persian Gulf, the fishing village offers its visitors a patchwork of delightfully photogenic scenes of badgirs (wind towers) and minarets.

A few hundred meters north of Laft is located one of Qeshm’s many traditional vessel-building workshops. These indigenous cargo boats are still used to carry goods back and forth across the Persian Gulf.

Qeshm Island embraces a wide range of ecotourism attractions such as the Hara marine forests and about 60 villages dotted mostly across its rocky coastlines. The island has an abundance of wildlife, including birds, reptiles, dolphins and turtles as well.

AFM/MG

PHOTO: The upper part of a traditional badgir (wind tower) is seen in the foreground with a minaret standing tall in the historical village of Laft on Qeshm Island, southern Iran.