TEHRAN – A selection of 12 places including a school, a public bathhouse, and two movie theaters all located in East Azarbaijan province has been inscribed in the national list for cultural heritage.

On Sunday, Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Minister Ezzatollah Zarghami announced the inscriptions as he sent official statements to the governor-general of the northwestern province, CHTN reported.

A former school, an old business house, a clayware workshop, and five houses with historical significance were added to the prestigious list as well.

Capital of East Azarbaijan province, Tabriz, which is well-soaked in history and culture for millennia, embraces several historical and religious sites, including the Jameh Mosque of Tabriz and the Arg of Tabriz, and UNESCO-registered Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex to name a few.

Tabriz became the capital of the Mongol Il-Khan Mahmud Gazan (1295–1304) and his successor. Timur (Tamerlane), a Turkic conqueror, took it in 1392. Some decades later the Kara Koyunlu Turkmen made it their capital, it was when the famous Blue Mosque was built in Tabriz.

The city retained its administrative status under the Safavid dynasty until 1548 when Shah Tahmasp I relocated his capital westward to Qazvin. During the next two centuries, Tabriz changed hands several times between Persia and Ottoman Empire. During World War I, the city was temporarily occupied by Turkish and then Soviet troops.

Tabriz was named a world craft city of carpet weaving by the World Craft in 2016. It also bore the title of 2018 Islamic Tourism Capital.

AFM