TEHRAN – A total of seven tourism-related projects, worth over 50 billion rials (about $1.1m), are scheduled to be completed in the southern province of Fars by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021), provincial tourism chief has said.

A guest house, two traditional restaurants, a nature park, and three recreational centers will come on stream by the yearend in the cities of Shiraz, Kazeroon, Fasa, and Mehr, CHTN quoted Jamshid Moeini as saying on Tuesday.

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.

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.

Hafezieh (mausoleum of Hafez, an illustrious 14th-century Persian poet), the UNESCO-registered Persepolis, and Sadi mausoleum are some of the most-visited sites in the province.

ABU/MG