TEHRAN -- Farmers are still working the land under which the ancient city of Jondishapur is buried.

Jondishapur, which was Iran’s first academic city, is located near Dezful, Khuzestan Province in southwestern Iran. The site had 30 ancient tepes in 1980, but only 14 of them now remain. The other mounds have been flattened by farmers during agricultural operations. Experts believe that 90 percent of the ruins of the 300-hectare town have been destroyed by farming, the Persian service of CHN reported on Tuesday. Ten years ago, a contract was signed between the farmers and the Agricultural Jihad Ministry (AJM), allowing the farmers to work on the fields for a decade and which expired in April 2007. It had been proposed that The Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO), which had asked the AJM to put a stop to the agricultural operations, allocate alternative agricultural land to the farmers. “However, neither has the CHTHO allocated the land nor has the AJM signed a new contract with the farmers,” Dezful Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Office director Mehdi Mohammadizadeh said. The office has already suggested that the territory located in the third grade area of the site be transferred to the farmers after a series of comprehensive salvage excavations have been carried out. A team of archaeologists has completed demarcation of the area but as yet no official statement has been announced. Jondishapur is also being threatened by smugglers who are plundering the site for artifacts. As far back as October 2005, the Khuzestan Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (KCHTHD) and the Abadan Society of Cultural Heritage Lovers asked President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to take measures to save Jondishapur, which was at that time being endangered by a rise in illegal excavations. Jondishapur or Gondeshapur was founded by the Sassanid Emperor Shapur I (241-272 CE) before the advent of Islam. The city was captured by Muslims during the caliphate of Umar, by Abu Musa al-Ashari. During this era it already had a well established hospital and medical school as well as an institution for philosophical studies. Jondishapur gained its claim to fame during the rule of Khosrow Anushiravan. It is written that the king had a keen interest in the sciences and thus gathered a large group of scholars in his city. It was by his decree that the famous physician Borzuyeh was sent off to India to gather the best minds and sources of knowledge of the day. Borzuyeh is famous for having translated the ancient text “Panchatantr” from Sanskrit into Persian, naming it “Kalilah and Dimnah”. Thus, Jondishapur University became an important center of science, philosophy, and medicine in the ancient world