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CAIS ARCHAEOLOGICAL & CULTURAL NEWS©
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Persepolis Erosion Worrisome
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Shapour Suren-Pahlav
17 September 2005
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Growing concerns have been expressed about the erosion of stones at the world famous historical site of Persepolis (Takht-e Jamshid) which symbolizes national glory, reported Persian service of ISNA.
Secretary of Pars Archeological Studies Center
Amir-Hossein Hekmatnia said that while experts
have taken precautionary steps to ensure the
safety of the historical site, the erosion is
evident to a tourist who visits the historical
site after an interval of a couple of months.
This, he noted, has given rise to serious concerns
about safeguarding the site from the forces of
nature.
He said that Parse-Pasargad Foundation is
conducting a routine check on the maintenance of
the monument by applying modern techniques.
Hekmatnia said that experts of Parse-Pasargadae
Foundation are currently working on modern
techniques for disposal of waste water from
Persepolis (Takht-e Jamshid) to avert any danger
posed by seepage at the site.
The expert advised the visitors not to touch the
stones of the monuments since body fat present in
the hands is absorbed by the stone giving rise to
erosion.
He called on the custodians of Takht-e Jamshid to
guide visitors to keep the monuments safe and
prevent damages caused by them.
Hekmatnia said that the sandstone covering the
ground of Takht-e Jamshid is useful for
maintenance of the floor of the monument, but, at
the same time, visitors carelessly wear away the
sandstones which is harmful in the long run.
“Of course, the custodians guide the visitors
and remind them about what they should and what
they should not do,“ he said.
He stated that a shelter has been erected over
Apadana Palace to protect the monument from acid
rains.
“A shelter is the best way to protect Apadana
Palace from acid rains. Such harmful rain takes
place in Marvdasht since a petrochemical plant has
been established in the vicinity of the
monument,“ he said.
He said that Iran’s Cultural Heritage and
Tourism Organization and UNESCO have provided
funds for maintenance of Apadana--a magnificent
palace of the ancient world located in Persepolis.
Iran's
pre-Islamic heritage sites, are suffering as the
result of the Islamic regime in power, as the
ruling clerics in Iran are devoted to Arabic and
Islamic culture. For the regime's larders the
title of 'sayyed' (a descendent of
Muhammad) isn't simply an honorific but it is a
title affirming that the blood running in their
veins is the same as that of Bedouins who invaded
and pillaged Sasanian Iran in 7th century.
Soon after the 1979, Islamic Republic's efforts was began to subvert Iran's unique identity via Islamisation, in which the ruling clerics have tried to literally wreck and undermine the history and legacy of pre-Islamic Iran, and therefore Sadeq Khalkhali who was one of the most notorious Muslim clerics, nicknamed "the Hanging Judge," had sent bulldozers to level the magnificent Achaemenid ruins at Persepolis. If not for the proud locals who laid down in the path of those bulldozers and eventually chased them away, the famed pre-Islamic Iranian colonnades and its' majestic halls would have had the same fate as Bamiyan's Buddha statues, destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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"History is the Light on the Path to Future" |
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Encyclopaedia Iranica
The British Institute of Persian Studies "Persepolis Reconstructed"
The British Museum
The Royal Asiatic Society
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