TEHRAN – A team of cultural heritage experts and restorers has started a project on Qaleh Kohneh, aiming to rehabilitate parts of the ruined Sassanid-era (224 CE–651) fortress, which is situated in Meshkinshahr county, northwest Iran.

“A 23-meter-long stone foundation is being amended on the east side and the tower on the east side of Qaleh Kohneh in order to preserve and revive this important historical monument of the city,” Meshkinshahr’s tourism chief Imanali Imani said on Monday, CHTN reported.

Due to the significance of this historical monument, the eastern side of the fortress was urgently restored over the past two years with a credit of two billion rials (about $47,000 at the official rate of 42,000 rials) in order to prevent its destruction and lay the ground for it being a tourist destination, the official noted.

The fortress bears a sole inscription inscribed in the Sassanid Pahlavi script, which shows the importance of this fort and its strategic location, he said.

The Sassanid era is of very high importance in the history of Iran. Under Sassanids, Persian art and architecture experienced a general renaissance. Architecture often took grandiose proportions such as palaces at Ctesiphon, Firuzabad, and Sarvestan that are amongst highlights of the ensemble.

In 2018, UNESCO added an ensemble of Sassanian historical cities in southern Iran -- titled “Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region”-- to its World Heritage list.

AFM/MG