There are 22 cultural and 2 natural world heritage sites in Iran designated by UNESCO.
Iran, this gifted country shines like a scarce diamond among the mostly feverish Middle East. In recent years Iranians are dealing with several issues but this country is still patient and gracious as it was from the time first civilizations appeared in.
Iran’s nature is as one of the most generous mothers in the world which gives Iranians an honorable power of building 22 glorious places in different regions with different cultures to become the world heritages. You can see Iran having 4 seasons, many different cultures depended on different climates, deserts beside jungles and waterfalls, you can have access to the ocean beside splendid gentle mountains having colorful sands.
We will introduce 5 recent sites designated by UNESCO in this post.
The latest designated world heritage of Iran is the most aggregated forest of Iran located in the south of the Caspian Sea between Azerbaijan and Iran. some say Hyrcanian Forests exist from the age of dinosaurs. So that Iran has an alive fossil. The trees start growing near the surface of the sea and keep getting tall to the hight of 2800 meters. 51% of this Forest has extincted and now space is about 55100 square kilometers. There are 296 species of birds and 98 species of mammals also 150 native tree species and shrub plants (such as bush and evergreen).
Most of the trees in these forests are Beech, oak, alder, elm, aspic, sword and etc.
Hyrcanian Forests is one of the world heritage sites in Iran designated by UNESCO in 2019.
This landscape which includes 8 historical sites was designated in the 42nd UNESCO world summit in 2018. Sassanid Fars complex includes 8 privileged architectural works, 2 historical cities, 8 stone relief, 2 palaces and 1 castle located in 8 sites that 3 of them are in Fars. Bishapur, Firouzabad, and Sarvestan make Fars Province have a total of 5 UNESCO sites in Iran.
The second Historical city of the world after Venice is located in Iran named, Yazd. The first city made of raw clay. Yazd is located in a hot dry climate so that the ancient residents had to have a special architecture. It’s full of windward which would help people make their houses less hot especially in summers. Yazd is the greatest historical context of Iran by having a space of about 800 hectares.
Qanat refers to a complex of wells giving a source of water a way to the dried areas, Farms, and some far cities. This technology made ancient Iranians be able to live in better situations and even live in the deserts. It was the wisdom of old Iranians for making water available for everyone because the water of the Qanats would be pure, clean and prevented from being wasted.
In 2016 UNESCO designated 11 Iranian Qanat in its list of world heritage sites which are mostly located in dry-climate cities like Yazd and Shush.
V) the Wonderful Lut Desert the Definite World Heritage Site in Iran
Lut means naked in Persian. One-tenth of Iran’s space is covered by deserts. The biggest one of them is Lut with a space of about 175000 square kilometers.
There’s an area in Lut that was the hottest place on earth in the years 2004 to 2009 with 70.7 centigrade degrees. You can see the highest sandhills in the world here which are gathered like a city with skyscrapers. This city is named Shahdad. Some say humans can’t still pass through this city completely.
So now you know what are the best places in Iran you should necessarily visit in your travel to Iran.