Alamut Castle reopens to visitors as UNESCO bid enters final stage
Alamut Castle in Iran’s northwestern Qazvin Province reopened to visitors on April 18 after an 18-month closure, provincial heritage chief Maryam Mahdavi said, marking a return timed with International Day for Monuments and Sites as the landmark nears a final decision on its UNESCO World Heritage bid.
Mahdavi, acting head of cultural heritage in Qazvin Province, said the high-profile site had undergone extensive ground preparation and conservation works before welcoming tourists again, IRNA reported.
The reopening comes as Iran pushes to secure global listing for the mountain citadel, a process officials say is in its closing phase.
In July 2025, Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Reza Salehi-Amiri said international evaluators were expected to conduct a final inspection in early autumn, describing a potential inscription as a “turning point” for regional tourism.
Perched on a rugged ridge about 200 kilometers northwest of Tehran, the site, long known as the “Eagle’s Nest”, rose to prominence in 1090, serving for over a century as the intellectual and strategic hub.
Authorities are concurrently moving to scale up accommodation capacity and court private investment, aiming to leverage a prospective listing into sustained visitor inflows and broader economic spillovers across the province.