Experts are still collecting documents for the dossier of the historical city, which will be inscribed on the list in three weeks, Mohammad-Hassan Khademzadeh added.
This is first time the CHTO will register a city in the directory of national heritage in order to safeguard its historical structures and monuments.
Three options had been suggested for the demarcation of the cultural area of the city. The first option included the structures that had been built during the Ilkhanid era. The second option also included the Qajar era structures of the city. The third option included structures from the Ilkhanid, Timurid, Safavid, and Qajar eras along with nearby historical villages.
“The third option was approved during a session of the Yazd Decision-Making Board,” Khademzadeh said.
Experts are also preparing another dossier for registration of the city on the UNESCO World Heritage List, but the proposed borders of the cultural area would only include a small section of the city, Khademzadeh said in conclusion.
Also called Yezd, the city dates back to the 5th century CE and was described as the “noble city of Yazd” by Marco Polo. A network of qanats (tunnels dug to carry water) links Yazd with the edge of the nearby mountain Shir Khu. It served as a provincial capital and earned the title of Dar al-Ibada (Home of Piety) due to its many religious buildings. Some of the city's inhabitants are Zoroastrians whose ancestors had fled toward Yazd and Kerman when the Muslim Arabs conquered Iran. Yazd is now the last center of Zoroastrianism in Iran.
Since Sassanid times Yazd has been famous for beautiful silk textiles that were rivaled in later periods only by those of Kashan and Isfahan. The city is still a major center of silk weaving. It has spinning and weaving mills, a plant for the manufacture of water purification and filtration equipment, and considerable mining and quarrying activity; copper deposits nearby are processed at the Sar Cheshmeh facilities.
Besides a few remains of the imposing medieval city wall, the city has many important mosques and mausoleums. The Friday Mosque is distinguished by the highest minarets in Iran, mosaic faience (earthenware ceramics), a superb mihrab (pulpit) dating back to 1375, and two chapels that are Gothic in appearance. Some of the other mosques and mausoleums in the city are decorated with delicate and rich stucco relief or are polychromed with tones of pale blue, rose, and yellow. The skyline is picturesque with minarets and many tall towers that were designed to bring cool air from underground into the buildings' chambers.
MMS/HG
End
MNA
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