TEHRAN – A total of 11 historical objects have recently been confiscated from a smuggler in Gorgan, northern Golestan province, the provincial tourism chief has said. 

“The relics have been recovered from the house of the smuggler, who is an excavator in the meanwhile,” Rahman Farmani explained on Saturday. 

The police detained and surrendered the suspect to the judicial system for further investigation, the official added. 

Golestan is reportedly embracing some 2,500 historical and natural sites, with UNESCO-registered Gonbad-e Qabus – a one-millennium-old brick tower – amongst its most famous.

Narratives say the tower has influenced various subsequent designers of tomb towers and other cylindrical commemorative structures both in the region and beyond. The UNESCO comments that the tower bears testimony to the cultural exchange between Central Asian nomads and the ancient civilization of Iran.

ABU/AFM