TEHRAN – Jameh Mosque of Dezful, a centuries-old congregational place of worship that stands tall in the southwestern Khuzestan province, is in need of urgent restoration, a local tourism official has said.

Due to the damage to the sewer pipes, the eastern and western sides of the mosque need to undergo urgent restoration, Abbas Cheragh-Cheshm explained on Saturday.

A proper budget needs to be allocated to the restoration project, the official added.

The historical mosque has been added to the national heritage list.

Khuzestan is home to three UNESCO World Heritage sites, namely Susa, Tchogha Zanbil, and Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System yet it is a region of raw beauty where its visitors could spend weeks exploring. The province is also a cradle for handicrafts and arts whose crafters inherited from their preceding generations.

Lying at the head of the Persian Gulf and bordering Iraq on the west, Khuzestan was settled about 6000 BC by a people with affinities to the Sumerians, who came from the Zagros Mountains region. Urban centers appeared there nearly contemporaneously with the first cities in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium. Khuzestan, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, came to constitute the heart of the Elamite kingdom, with Susa as its capital.

The terms “Jameh Mosque”, “Masjed-e Jameh” and “Friday Mosque” are used in Iran for a grand communal mosque where mandatory Friday prayers are performed: the phrase is used in other Muslim countries but only in Iran does it designate this purpose.

ABU/MG