TEHRAN—The 7,000-year-old Qoli Darvish Hill, which is situated in Qom province, is planned to be turned into an outdoor museum, the provincial tourism chief has said.

However, to turn the archaeological hill into a museum site, a proper budget is required, IRNA quoted Alireza Arjmandi as saying on Tuesday.

It is hoped that the funding will be raised and attracted phase by phase, the official added.

So far a proper budget has not been allocated for Qoli Darvish Hill, which is believed to be as important as Persepolis in Fars province, he noted.

By attracting the necessary funds, the archaeological hill will be introduced to the people of Iran and the world, he mentioned.

Dating back to the Iron Age, the hill is located southwest of the city of Qom. Archeological excavations, which began in 2002, showed that Qoli Darvish dates back six to seven thousand years ago.

The hill covers the land as big as 50 hectares. The discovery of historical elements of an ancient temple from the Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age led to conclusions about the social classes and further anthropological research about those periods of history.

In recent years, domestic and foreign tourists can visit the ancient hill, which was inscribed on the National Heritage list in 2003.

Iron Age is the final technological and cultural stage in the Stone –Bronze– Iron Age sequence. The date of the full Iron Age, in which this metal, for the most part, replaced bronze in implements and weapons, varied geographically, beginning in West Asia and southeastern Europe about 1200 BC but in China not until about 600 BC, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Although in West Asia iron had limited use as a scarce and precious metal as early as 3,000 BC, there is no indication that people at that time recognized its superior qualities over those of bronze.

The country’s second-holiest city after Mashhad, Qom, is home to both the magnificent shrine of Hazrat-e Masumeh (SA) and the major religious madrasas (schools).

Apart from sightseers and pilgrims who visit Qom to pay homage to the holy shrine, the city is also a top destination for Shiite scholars and students who come from across the world to learn Islamic studies at its madrasas and browse through eminent religious bookshops.

The city’s antiquity goes back to the Sassanid era (224 CE–651) and several historical mosques, mansions and natural sceneries have been scattered across the city as well as towns and villages nearby.

ABU/AM