TEHRAN – Ten historical structures and aging buildings in the southwestern Khuzestan province are planned to be restored in the near future, a provincial tourism official has said.

Abdollah Banu Holy Shrine, Moein al-Tojjar historical complex, Dadras Mansion, and Amir Mojahed Garden are among the historical monuments in need of restoration, which are located in different cities of the province, IRNA quoted Ahmadreza Hosseini as saying on Monday.

Khuzestan is home to three UNESCO World Heritage sites of Susa, Tchogha Zanbil, and Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System yet it is a region of raw beauty where its visitors could spend weeks exploring. The province is also a cradle for handicrafts and arts whose crafters inherited from their preceding generations.

Lying at the head of the Persian Gulf and bordering Iraq on the west, Khuzestan was settled about 6000 BC by a people with affinities to the Sumerians, who came from the Zagros Mountains region. Urban centers appeared there nearly contemporaneously with the first cities in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium. Khuzestan, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, came to constitute the heart of the Elamite kingdom, with Susa as its capital.

ABU/MG