TEHRAN – Visiting assessors affiliated with the International Council on Monuments and Sites have expressed their satisfaction with the development of a dossier dedicated to the possible UNESCO registration of Masuleh, an ancient village in northern Iran.

Speaking in a meeting held during their presence in Iran on Wednesday, Jihad Haroun, a member of the ICOMOS evaluation team which arrived in Masuleh on March 2, pointed to the visit as an opening move to the multi-stage investigation processes of Masuleh’s registration dossier.

He further detailed the various phases, stating that the initiative step comprises field observation and transferring the data to ICOMOS colleagues.

Haroun also echoed his satisfaction with cooperating with Iranian experts as a part of the collective nature of Masuleh’s world registration procedure, which includes a total of 25 experts’ collaborative efforts in the course of multiple phases.

“It’s my very first visit to Iran, and it’s an honor to be a part of a team working on this registration dossier,” Rusadan Mirzikashvili, another member of the evaluation team, noted.

Commending the progress made on the subject of Masuleh’s world registration file, she expressed optimism towards the ICOMOS assessing team’s role in easing the process through collecting adequate data.

Meeting with the ICOMOS assessors, Ali Darabi, the deputy tourism minister, expressed pleasure considering their presence.

Darabi winded back the clock to the rich seven-thousand-year history of Iran, considered as a habitable area for mankind dating back to approximately a million years.

During the meeting, the official underscored Iran’s global standing as one of the top ten countries in the matter of tangible heritage and among the top five in the intangible heritage field.

Highlighting Masuleh as an exemplary representation of Islamic stepped cities, Darabi emphasized the noteworthiness of world registration.

The urgency of Masuleh’s world registration was addressed by the official, expressing a desire for increased protection under the 1972 convention.

It's noteworthy that Masuleh was temporarily enshrined in the UNESCO World Heritage roster in 2007. After more than a decade of halt, the registration process resumed as a testament to the village’s special richness.

The picturesque village is famed for its Lego-shaped earthen houses built on another’s rooftop.

Home to some of the most stunning landscapes in the country, Masouleh is one of the many stepped villages that are quite common to find around the country, especially in Iranian Kurdistan and around Mashhad. They have been built on a hill so steep that the roof of one house is the pathway for the next.

Archaeological evidence indicates the history of human presence in mountains near Masouleh dates back to the late Bronze Age (2000-1500 BC), which is the longest than previously believed.

Masuleh has been registered in the League of Historical Cities.