Iran has 58 cultural heritage sites awaiting UNESCO review
Iran has 58 more cultural heritage dossiers on UNESCO’s tentative list and awaiting review, the deputy minister of cultural heritage, tourism and handicrafts said on Monday.
Ali Darabi said at a meeting on the “strategic heritage of Alamut Castle” that Iran would have sites ready for global registration for “more than half a century” if it registered just one each year, IRNA reported.
Darabi pointed to the recent global registration of Alamut, saying it was the result of more than five years of work by 110 people that made it “Iran’s 30th site on the UNESCO list.”
Darabi said some of Iran’s heritage dossiers, particularly in Sistan and Baluchestan, South Khorasan and Razavi Khorasan provinces, reflect historical Iranian knowledge of adapting to difficult climatic conditions.
Alamut Castle, in the Alborz mountains of Qazvin province, is part of a seven-fortification network UNESCO registered in 2026 as “Alamut Castle and Associated Fortifications”.
The site was inscribed in July at UNESCO’s 48th World Heritage Committee session in Busan, South Korea, bringing Iran’s number of tangible world heritage sites to 30.
According to UNESCO documents, Alamut Castle was built in the ninth century AD.
Darabi stressed that global registration was not the end of the process, saying: “It is only the beginning of our work.”
He said protecting, maintaining and introducing such sites to younger generations was a shared responsibility for the present and future, urging efforts to help young people understand Iran’s historical and cultural heritage, take pride in it and feel responsible for preserving and passing it on to future generations.