TEHRAN –A medium-sized 5.3 magnitude earthquake that struck southern province of Fars on Wednesday morning caused no damage to historical sites across the province, the provincial tourism chief has said. 

Based on field visits conducted by the cultural heritage experts, no serious damage to historical relics and monuments has been reported so far, Seyyed Moayyed Mohsen-Nejad explained. 

However, experts are on standby to inspect the possible harms to historical sites and aging structures of the province, he added. 

Iran sits on top of major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity. A 7.3-magnitude quake in the western province of Kermanshah killed 620 people in November 2017.

In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude quake destroyed the ancient mud-brick city of Bam in the southeast Kerman province, killing at least 31,000 people.

Iran's deadliest was a 7.4-magnitude quake in 1990 that killed 40,000 people, injured 300,000 others, and left half a million homeless across the northern town of Rudbar.

The ancient region of Fars, also spelled Pars, or Persis, was the heart of the Achaemenian Empire (ca. 550–330 BC), which was founded by Cyrus the Great and had its capital at Pasargadae. Darius I the Great moved the capital to nearby Persepolis in the late 6th or early 5th century BC.

Its capital city, Shiraz, is home to some of the country’s most magnificent buildings and sights. Increasingly, it draws more and more foreign and domestic sightseers flocking into this provincial capital which was the literary capital of Persia during the Zand dynasty from 1751 to 1794.

ABU/