UNESCO World Heritage Certificate for Persepolis

• The Apadana Palace, Persepolis (Iran)

A ceremony to hand over the UNESCO World Heritage Certificate for Persepolis heritage property will take place in Persepolis on 15 December 2008.

The Persepolis ceremony is the third of nine ceremonies to award certificates to Iranian World Heritage properties. The remaining certificates will be awarded at future ceremonies at Esfahan, Soltanieh, Takht-e-Soleiman, Chogha Zanbil, Pasargarde and the Armenian Monasteries of Iran. On 1 and 6 July 2008, the UNESCO World Heritage Certificates for Bisotun and Bam and its Cultural Landscape cultural heritage properties were handed over in Kermanshah and Bam, respectively.

Persepolis was inscribed on the World Heritage List by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 1979. Founded by Darius I in 518 B.C., Persepolis was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. It was built on an immense half-artificial, half-natural terrace, where the king of kings created an impressive palace complex inspired by Mesopotamian models. The importance and quality of the monumental ruins make it a unique archaeological site.

The event is organized by the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicraft, and Tourism Organization, the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO, the Fars Provincial Government, the municipal authorities of Marvadsht and Shiraz, and UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office. This series of ceremonies that are being organized to award World Heritage Certificates in Iran coincides with the 60th anniversary of Iran’s membership to UNESCO, as well as the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO.

• Source:UNIC Tehran
• 14-12-2008

• Image 2: © Fabienkhan - The higher part of a column from Apadana hall, Persepolis, Iran. Picture taken in the archeological museum of Teheran in January 2005 created by F. Dany