TEHRAN – Several tourism-related projects worth one trillion rials ($23.8 million at the official exchange rate of 42,000 rials per dollar) are currently underway in the historical city of Tus, northeastern Khorasan Razavi province. 

The projects are expected to help revive and promote the region as a top tourist destination, the provincial tourism chief has said. 

An important project of the effort is to set up a tourism route to the ancient Kohan-Dezh citadel, one of the greatest tourist attractions of the city, Abolfazl Mokarramifar announced on Saturday. 

He also noted that in close collaboration with the private sector, historical monuments and aging buildings across the province are planned to be revived and restored in a bid to boost tourism in the region. 

The ancient city of Tus is popular for the Mausoleum of Ferdowsi, the illustrious Persian poet. Many Iranians regard Ferdowsi as the greatest of their poets. Down through the centuries they have continued to read and to listen to recitations from his masterwork, the Shahnameh.

Located near the provincial capital of Mashhad, which is one of the top tourist attractions of the country, Tus has been the birthplace of some important cultural and scientific Iranian figures since the past centuries. 

The city was captured by Alexander the Great in c. 330 BC and it was destroyed once during the Mongol invasion, and again by the Timurids, and many of its people were killed. 

Besides Ferdowsi, the most famous person who has emerged from that area was the theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic al-Ghazali. Other notable residents of Tus include the early polymath Jaber ibn Hayyan, poet Asadi Tusi; polymath Nasser al-Din Tusi, and the prominent Islamic scholar Abu Jafar Tusi.

Tus and its historical gates, citadel, and ramparts were registered on the National Heritage list in 1996.  

ABU/AFM