TEHRAN - Gousheh-Shahanshah Caravanserai, a 17th-century roadside inn in Lorestan province, has undergone restoration, the provincial tourism chief said on Sunday.

The restoration work will touch upon worn-out bricks and traditional insulation of the rooftops, Seyyed Amin Qasemi said.

The Islamic Republic has submitted an inclusive dossier on its caravanserais to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The dossier comprises the obligatory data about a selection of 56 caravanserais, which are located in 24 provinces.

Caravanserai or caravansary is a compound word combining “caravan” with “sara”; the former stands for a group of travelers and the latter means the building.

Iran’s earliest caravanserais were built during the Achaemenid era (550 -330 BC). Centuries later, when Shah Abbas I assumed power from 1588 – to 1629, he ordered the construction of a network of caravanserais across the country.

For many travelers to Iran, staying in or even visiting a centuries-old caravanserai, can be a wide experience; they have an opportunity to feel the past, a time travel back into a forgotten age.

Self-serving chambers that are meticulously laid out around a vast courtyard may easily evoke spirits of the past. It’s not hard to fancy the hustle and bustle of merchants bargaining on prices, recounting their arduous journeys to one another while their camels chewing hay!

A region of raw beauty in western Iran, Lorestan was once inhabited by Iranian Indo-European peoples, including the Medes, c. 1000 BC. Moreover, Cimmerians and Scythians intermittently ruled the region from about 700 to 625 BC. Lorestan is famed for its ancient Luristan Bronzes for their eclectic array of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Iranian artistic motifs, dating from this turbulent period.

Historically speaking, Lorestan was incorporated into the growing Achaemenid Empire in about 540 BC and successively was part of the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanid dynasties.

AFM