TEHRAN – Visits by international travelers to historical sites in Fars province rose 12 percent during the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21) compared to the same period a year earlier.

The Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization has registered 147,389 foreign nationals visiting museums and historical sites across the southern province during the period, provincial tourism chief Mosayeb Amiri said on Monday, CHTN reported.

Meanwhile, a total of 2,013,337 visits by domestic sightseers were recorded during the three months, the official said.

Hafezieh, a memorial garden where illustrious Persian poet Hafez is laid to rest, was named the most-visited site and it received 588,979 visitors, he said.

UNESCO-registered Persepolis, and Sadi mausoleum, where a great figure of classical Persian literature is entombed, were ranked the second and third, receiving 381,342 and 357,094 visitors respectively, Amiri added.

The capital city of Shiraz is home to some of the country’s most magnificent buildings and sights. Increasingly, it draws more and more foreign and domestic sightseers flocking into this provincial capital which was the literary capital of Persia during the Zand dynasty from 1751 to 1794.

The ancient region of Fars, also spelled Pars, or Persis, was the heart of the Achaemenian Empire (550–330 BC), which was founded by Cyrus the Great and had its capital at Pasargadae. Darius I the Great moved the capital to nearby Persepolis in the late 6th or early 5th century BC.

AFM/MG