TEHRAN – Cheshmak caravansary, an abandoned roadside inn in western Iran, has undergone restoration.

Worn-out bricks and traditional insulation of the rooftops will be amended in this round of restoration, Lorestan province’s tourism chief said on Monday.

The Safavid-era caravansary is one of those inns that Iran seeks to win a UNESCO recognition for, Seyyed Amin Qasemi said.

The Islamic Republic has recently submitted an inclusive dossier on its caravansaries to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The dossier comprises the obligatory data about a selection of 56 caravansaries, which are located in 24 provinces.

The structure is named after Shah Abbas the Great (r. 1588 – 1629), who ordered the construction of some one thousand caravansaries across his empire.

Caravansary is a compound word combining “caravan” with “sara”; the former stands for a group of travelers and the latter means the building.

Iran’s earliest caravansarais were built during the Achaemenid era (550 -330 BC). Centuries later, when Shah Abbas I assumed power from 1588 – to 1629, he ordered the construction of a network of caravansaries across the country.

For many travelers to Iran, staying in or even visiting a centuries-old caravansary, can be a wide experience; they have an opportunity to feel the past, a time travel back into a forgotten age.

Cozy chambers that are meticulously laid out around a vast courtyard may easily evoke spirits of the past. It’s not hard to fancy the hustle and bustle of merchants bargaining on prices, recounting their arduous journeys to one another while their camels chewing hay!

AFM