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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| Iran dam said to threaten Persepolis | |
| 2007-04-21 | |
At the inauguration ceremony, attended by Energy Ministry officials, pipes were opened for water to start flowing into an artificial lake created by the dam spanning the Sivand River, 520 miles south of the capital, Tehran. The lake's waters will be used to irrigate the area's farms. Iranian state-run television said the dam was opened "on the order of the President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the hard-line Iranian leader did not attend the inauguration. The launch was delayed for months to give international archaeological teams time to conduct excavations in the area of the planned reservoir after an appeal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The work yielded significant discoveries such as a road believed to be the Royal Passage of the Achaemenids, a powerful dynasty in ancient Persia in the 6th century B.C., as well as an Achaemenid village with a cemetery and inhabited caves dating back 7,000 years. Iranian intellectuals and activists condemned the Tehran government for going ahead with the dam, calling it a "stupidity." Archaeologists say flooding from the dam will submerge the Royal Passage, which linked Persepolis to Susa, two capital cities in ancient Persia, as well as some of the 130 ancient sites along the Tang-e-Bolaghi, a mountain path that crosses the Sivand River. There are also concerns that humidity, spreading through underground water from the dam, could damage nearby Persepolis. The sprawling ruins, Greek for "City of Persians," are famed for the grand double stairway rising to a wide, terraced audience hall with 72 columns. Sacked by Alexander the Great about 330 B.C., the old city is visited by mlns every year, mostly Iranians but also foreigners. Experts also worry about Pasargadae, an ancient capital built by Cyrus the Great sometime after 550 B.C. that holds his tomb. Both Persepolis and Pasargadae, only 19 miles and 5 miles away from the dam, are on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. Iran's Islamic-oriented government has not shown much concern for cultural sites from the Persian era, unlike the country's more recent Muslim monuments. The official IRNA news agency quoted Vice President Rahim Mashaei, who is also head of Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization, as saying Thursday that the "opening of the Sivand Dam is no danger for Pasargadae" but did not mention the Royal Passage or Persepolis. Archaeologist Parviz Varjavand said "irreplaceable human heritage" will be lost. "This ruling establishment gives no value to Iran's cultural heritage. It is an act of stupidity and obstinacy," he said. | |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #11 nice pics, Ice. Persia had a long and glorious period of culture and intellectual achievement. Makes the current batch of MM's and their work look like dung-worshippers. I'd just hope that when the shit hits the fan, they have the good taste to avoid putting SAM and AA sites in their historical monuments |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-04-21 20:35 |
| #10 Photos for those of us that have never seen this and apparently never will. Hope the link isn't to long.... To the point the vampire sand people cult trolls on with destruction of real cultures. Or as Bugs said, "there is no piggy but Allah and Porky is his name". On the other hand the things are going the whole country is going to be turned into glass. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-04-21 18:48 |
| #9 we'd have teams of operatives whose job it was to remind the Iranians of their great past and the role it has played in modern civilization During the time of the Shah he would have ceremonies at Persepolis. The imperial guard was named "The Immortals" after their ancient forebears. The Nobel Laureate (Literature) Sir Vidia Naipaul has noted that Islam replaces the sacred places of the converted people with the sacred places of Arabia. For them God himself speaks in Arabic. Arabic customs are muslim ones. The native culture, language, religion etc have no value in Islam. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-21 15:27 |
| #8 It's from the time of ignorance before Mo's shining beacon, so what's the big deal? Just another pile of stones. Mullah Omar's comments about the Afghan Buddhas spring to mind: In March Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of two ancient statues of Buddha carved into cliffs near the town of Bamiyan. He dismissed protests from around the world saying that his men were simply 'breaking stones' adding 'my job is the implementation of Islamic order.'The time is soon arriving where Islam's Kaaba will be just another stone that needs "breaking". |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-21 14:59 |
| #7 these actions correspond to those of the taliban, when they ordered the destruction of the great buddahs. This is a function of communist hegemony, to wipe history so it can be easily rewritten to fit the script of the new history. This whole team in power are complete throwbacks, they have only the capacity for evil, hegemony over lifes circumstances is thier primary goal, the means to those ends include freedom to erase and replace. We already know the plan, this dam will flood the ruins, its not a question of if, but when. |
| Posted by: Ebbelet Squank1306 2007-04-21 13:21 |
| #6 You know, if we were any good at all at psyops, we'd have teams of operatives whose job it was to remind the Iranians of their great past and the role it has played in modern civilization, what their civilization was like when they displayed humanity toward men of all religions, and what caused it all to go to hell. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2007-04-21 11:01 |
| #5 imagine the catastrophe in store for an Islamist Egypt Actually, they tried before. A Muslim prince declared the pyramids an affront to Allah (piss be upon him) and ordered them demolished. Fortunately, they didn't have the tools to do more than shift a few stones. This time, who knows? |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-04-21 10:15 |
| #4 These actions should, on their own, constitute a cause for war. Think of what the Taliban did to Afghanistan's spare heritage and imagine the catastrophe in store for an Islamist Egypt. Thousands of years and all that wisdom erased by evil morons. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-04-21 07:49 |
| #3 From the tomb of Cyrus... " O, man, whoever thou art and whensoever thou comest, for I know that thou wilt come, I am Cyrus, and I won for the Persians their empire. Do not, therefore, begrudge me this little earth which covers my body. " From the Bible (2 Chronicles 36:23) 23 "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: " 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.' " |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-21 07:02 |
| #2 The dam has been built with the specific purpose of erasure of pre-muslim cultural heritage, or rather that was one of the "fringe benefits" as the mullahcracy is concerned. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-04-21 05:22 |
| #1 Pearls before swine. |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-04-21 01:21 |