TEHRAN – A total of 387,925 visits were made to the main geosites of Qeshm Island by both domestic and foreign tourists during the solar year 1402 [March 21, 2023 to March 19, 2024], according to related officials.

In an interview with ISNA, on Saturday, the director of Qeshm Geopark detailed the figure, stating that during this period, 209,515 visits were made by domestic tourists and 1,411 by foreign tourists to the Star Valley geosite.

“Additionally, last year, Chahkooh Canyon geosites with a total of 151,182 visits, and Namakdan Cave with 10,864 visits,” Sajad Ashgarf further explained, “ranked as the second and third most visited sites of the Qeshm Global Geopark.”

According to the Geopark’s director, during this period, the Valley of Statues geosite recorded 7,535 visits and the Qeshm Global Geopark Museum with 7,416 visits secured the next position.

“In the course of past year, 3,250 visits by foreign tourists to the main geosites of Qeshm Global Geopark were recorded,” Ashgarf noted.

“In 1402, for the first time among Iranian Geoparks, with the aim of establishing justice and sustainable development of Qeshm’s tourism capacities,” the director of Qeshm Global Geopark in his concluding remarks stated, “accessibility for tourists with hearing impairments has been facilitated through the design of brochures with special QR codes for the Star Valley geosite.”

Qeshm Island UNESCO Global Geopark is part of the huge mountain range of Zagros, which has been deformed and folded as the result of the last phase of the Alpine orogeny in the Plio-Pleistocene.

The geological formations of this mountain belt belong to the Late Precambrian to Cambrian (more than 480 million years old) and include salt diapirs attributed to the Precambrian period called the Hormoz Series.

The island has abundant wildlife, including birds, reptiles, dolphins, and turtles. In Qeshm Island, zoogeographical areas of Palearctic and Oriental, and phytogeographical areas of Afro-tropical, Oriental, and Eurasian, are meeting each other, which generated a huge variety of fauna and flora.

Moreover, Qeshm is fringed with biologically diverse mangrove forests, attractive beaches, and 60 Bandari villages. Its blistering interior features geologically significant canyons, hills, caves, and valleys, most of which are protected as part of the UNESCO-recognized Qeshm Island Geopark – bliss for nature lovers.