A combination of photos by photographer Abdollah Heidary from IRNA shows the Samen Underground City, an archaeological site near Malayer in western Iran on April 10, 2017.

The site embraces over 50 chambers and catacombs of various dimensions, most of which interconnected by corridors and thresholds, and punctuated with human skeletal remains that are rich sources for revealing the lifestyle, food habits, and diseases in ancient Iran.   

According to the journal Bioarchaeology of the Near East, the human remains date back to Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 CE) that was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran and Iraq.

Situated under a modern urban area of the same name, the site was recovered accidentally during some development activities in 2005 and explored further during four seasons of archaeological investigations in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011.

AFM/MG