TEHRAN – The four-year-old roofing covers of the magnificent “winged human” bas-relief and several other ruined palaces at the UNESCO-registered Pasargadae in southern Iran have recently been replaced.

“The old shielding structures, which were practically lost their protecting function, were replaced with new polycarbonate ones,” IRNA quoted Afshin Ebrahimi, the director of the World Heritage site, as saying on Saturday.

Back in 2017, the Achaemenid-era ensemble was partly roofed by shielding structures in close collaboration with Italian experts using stainless steel and anti-rust material based on a memorandum of understanding that the Iranian cultural heritage body had signed with the Rome-based International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property.

Situated in about 50km north of Persepolis, itself another World Heritage site, Pasargadae was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great who reigned mighty Persian Empire from 559 to 530 BC.

Cyrus declared the world’s first charter of human rights, also known as the Cyrus Cylinder. The empire he established stretched from the Balkans to the Indus Valley to its greatest extent, spanning 5.5 million square kilometers.

AFM/MG