TEHRAN—Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts has established a special council tasked with monitoring and protecting historical monuments, sites, and centuries-old traditions in Yazd province.

The most important task of the members of this council is to investigate the damage caused by the recent flood to the historical core of Yazd (the provincial capital), CHTN reported.

In addition, the council is charged with formulating and implementing plans to safeguard, restore, and revitalize centuries-old monuments, and providing solutions to prevent damage caused by natural disasters.

“The great heritage of Yazd must be protected and restored through a comprehensive system,” reads a decree handed out to council members.

“Moreover, your mission is to secure technical, educational, and research support in the field of cultural heritage, and to enhance cooperation in developing strategies, policies, and programs for the protection and restoration of buildings, historical textures, and sites of Yazd province.”

Dozens of flash floods ravaged more than 700 mud-brick houses and structures in the ancient oasis city in late July.

According to the tourism minister Ezzatollah Zarghami, torrential downpours in the historical core of Yazd caused some 25 trillion rials ($83m) in damage. “Losses from the natural catastrophe in the historical core of Yazd totals around 25 trillion rials,” he said on August 1.

Flash floodings hit 17 provinces of the country claimed 32 lives and left 25 people missing. Sistan-Baluchestan, Tehran, Fars, Kerman, Hormozgan, Qom, Semnan, Mazandaran, Yazd, East Azarbaijan, South Khorasan, Golestan, Isfahan, Bushehr, Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad, Markazi, and Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari are the provinces ravaged by the heavy rainfalls.

Yazd is chock-full of adobe houses, mansions, bazaars, public bathhouses, water cisterns, mosques, synagogues, Zoroastrian temples, and centuries-old gardens. From the divine point of view, the city enjoys the peaceful coexistence of three religions: Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism.

A UNESCO World Heritage, Yazd is regularly referred to as a delightful place to stay, or a “don’t miss” destination by almost all of its visitors. The city is full of mud-brick houses that are equipped with innovative badgirs (wind catchers), atmospheric alleyways, and many Islamic and Iranian monuments that shape its eye-catching city landscape.

Cultural heritage experts believe that Yazd is a living testimony to the intelligent use of limited available resources in the desert for survival. Water is brought to the city by the qanat system. Each district of the city is built on a qanat and has a communal center. Furthermore, the use of earth in buildings includes walls and roofs through the construction of vaults and domes. Houses are built with courtyards below ground level, serving underground areas. Wind-catchers, courtyards, and thick earthen walls create a pleasant microclimate.

Yazd is home to numerous qanats which have supplied water to agricultural and permanent settlements for thousands of years. The man-carved underground qanat system relies on snow-fed streams flowing down the foothills of surrounding mountains. The earliest water supply to Yazd is estimated to date from the Sassanid era (224 to 651 CE). However, many others have been continually repaired and used over time, and most surviving Ab-Anbars (traditional mud-brick cisterns) can be today traced to the late Safavid and Qajar periods.

AM