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The
Sasanid dynasty city Eyvan-e Karkheh has been
turned into a garbage dump, an official of the
Shush Cultural Heritage and Tourism Office
announced on Wednesday.
“The ancient site is negligently used for
dumping rubbish. It is not clear if the people are
responsible or the local municipality, but no
doubt the ancient city has been recklessly
abandoned and its future prospects are bleak,”
added Hamid Fadaii, who is the director of the
workshop for the restoration of Elamite artworks
of Haft-Tappeh and Chogha Zanbil.
Built of brick, Eyvan-e Karkheh is the ruins of a
great palace with a large hall for imperial
ceremonies which dates back to the Sasanid dynasty
(224-651C.E.). It is located near Susa, the
capital of the Elamite Empire (2700-645 B.C.), in
Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan. Shush
is the modern Persian name for Susa.
According to Fadaii, 100 hectares of the site has
been used by agriculture students for scientific
studies. In related news, last August, Mahdi
Qanbari, the director of the Shush Cultural
Heritage and Tourism Office, announced that the
local municipality was secretly dumping rubbish at
the ruins of Susa at night.
Susa was an important and flourishing city in
ancient times. It is also mentioned in the Old
Testament as one of the places where the Prophet
Daniel lived. His tomb is located in the heart of
the city. A stela of the Code of Hammurabi was
discovered at Susa in 1901 by the French
Orientalist Jean-Vincent Scheil and is now on
display in the Louvre Museum in Paris. In
addition, many other important artifacts have been
unearthed at the site.
“As the situation becomes more and more
difficult for the ancient city, cultural heritage
officials of Shush have not been able to safeguard
the site,” Fadaii lamented.
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