The certificate was handed over by program specialist Ms. Junko Taniguchi from the UNESCO office in Tehran to the Kermashah cultural heritage officials, the Persian service IRNA reported.
UNESCO grants the official document to the sites and monuments, which have previously been registered on the World Heritage List.
Located in western Iran some 30 kilometers east of the provincial capital Kermanshah and at the foot of the Zagros Mountains, Bisotun was registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 13, 2006 during the 30th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, held in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Taniguchi compared Bisotun with Persepolis and the Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat, other Iranian ancient sites registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, and said that each site faces some urgent problems.
She described the lichen growing on the bas-reliefs and inscriptions, and construction of industrial projects on the perimeter of Bisotun as significant threats posed by the forces of nature and by humans towards the site.
According to Taniguchi, UNESCO has consulted experts around the world to find a solution to the lichen problem.
In August 2006, UNESCO’s World Heritage Center sent a letter to the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization demanding an explanation of the reason for the Kermanshah Petrochemical Company establishing the industrial town of Hersin on the perimeter of Bisotun.
Following the letter, an Iranian court ordered the company to cease all operations in the area.
MMS/YAW
END
MNA