TEHRAN – The overall restoration of the massive Bam Citadel, a massive mud-brick stronghold in southeast Iran, which was totally flattened by an earthquake in 2003, is now eighty percent complete.

“Some 80 percent of the reconstruction and rehabilitation work has been completed on Arg-e Bam (“Bam Citadel”) and the whole project is expected to be completed in about seven years,” IRNA quoted Mohsen Qasemi, a senior cultural heritage expert who leads the restoration project, as saying on Wednesday.

Bam and its Cultural Landscape is located on the southern edge of the Iranian high plateau in Kerman Province. It’s highly regarded as an outstanding example of an ancient fortified settlement.

According to UNESCO, the origins of the citadel can be traced back to the Achaemenid period (6th to 4th centuries BC) and even beyond. The ensemble was on crossroads of important trade routes as well in its heyday sometime between the 7th to 11th centuries.

AFM/MG