TEHRAN –A total of 79 tourism-related projects are currently underway across the northern province of Golestan, the provincial tourism chief has said.

An investment value of 56 trillion rials ($112 million) has been channeled into the projects, Mohammad-Javad Savari explained on Sunday. 

The projects are expected to generate over 5,000 job opportunities upon their completion, the official added. 

They will also add 1,938 rooms and 4,320 beds to the hospitality sector of the province, he noted. 

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/AM