TEHRAN – As the Nowruz holidays came officially to an end, Khuzestan’s travel services chief has announced that about 20 million visits to the province’s attractions have been registered along with three million overnight stays.

Pointing to the province’s historical places of interest as the main draw, Mohammad-Hossein Arastouzadeh on Wednesday noted that from March 14 to April 4, a total of 19,619,348 visits to Khuzestan's tourist attractions were recorded, featuring historical, natural, religious, recreational and cultural sites.

Arastouzadeh further elaborated on the accommodation statistics of tourists in the province, stating that throughout the spring holidays, 2,969,821 overnight stays were recorded in official, unofficial, and emergency accommodations across the province.

He highlighted that approximately 66% of tourists stayed in unofficial accommodations (1,937,699 overnight stays), while around 14% stayed in official accommodations (439,955 overnight stays), and about 20% stayed in emergency accommodations (592,167 overnight stays).

Regarding inspections, the official mentioned that 198 inspections were conducted across the province during the Nowruz holidays, including visits to accommodation centers, travel service offices, and restaurants to ensure holidaymakers are deservedly catered.

In his concluding remarks, the official mentioned that the executive headquarters of Nowruz travel services in the province has been extended until April 12, to provide services to tourists and travelers during the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holidays.

Shushtar Historic Hydraulic Structures shines in Iran’s top 10 destination

Amin Mahdavikia who presides over the World Heritage site of Historical Hydraulic Structures in Shushtar announced that in the course of the Nowruz holidays, 122,500 tickets were sold to enthusiasts.

In terms of the number of visits, the Historical Hydraulic Structures of Shushtar ranked ninth among the most frequented destinations across the country,” Mahdavikia noted, “and also for the second consecutive year, it ranked first in Khuzestan province."

The director of the Shushtar Historical Hydraulic Structures emphasized that a total of 122,500 electronic tickets were sold which indicates an increase of nearly 30,000 visitors compared to the past year.

The hydraulic ensemble comprises bridges, weirs, tunnels, canals, and a series of ancient watermills powered by human-made waterfalls. It is named after an ancient city of the same name with its history dating back to the time of Darius, the Great, the Achaemenid king.

It boasts a rich diversity of civil engineering structures and constructions, as in the diversity of its uses (urban water supply, mills, irrigation, river transport, and defensive system).

In fact, the Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System testifies to the heritage and the synthesis of earlier Elamite and Mesopotamian know-how; it was probably influenced by the Petra dam and tunnel and by Roman civil engineering.

“The hydraulic system has been considered a Wonder of the World not only by the Persians but also by the Arab-Muslims at the peak of their civilization,” according to the UN cultural body.

Furthermore, one of its main canals is a veritable artificial watercourse that made possible the construction of a new town and the irrigation of a vast plain, at the time semi-desert.

UNESCO says that the Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System demonstrates outstanding universal value as in its present form, it dates from the 3rd century CE, probably on older bases from the 5th century BC. It is complete, with numerous functions, and large-scale, making it exceptional.

Albeit it is said all good things must come to an end, in the holidays’ case, Iran is poised to provide services to travelers during the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holidays only a week after Nowruz vacations which means the statistics are expected to grow.