TEHRAN –The tourism authorities of the ancient city of Masjed Soleiman, in southwestern Khuzestan province, has launched a research base in the historical core of the city, a local official has said.

Established in collaboration with the National Iranian Oil Company, the base aims at facilitating the restoration and preservation of the historical texture of the city, Ayyub Soltani explained on Saturday.

Additionally, the establishment of this base is intended to provide conditions for the continuation of research, as well as for the protection of the city, the official added.

Masjed Soleiman was the site of the first oil well in Iran and the Middle East.

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 that 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 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/AM