‘Bam citadel gateway near completion’

The giant gateway of Arg-e Bam – a quake-stricken UNESCO-registered citadel in southeastern Iran – is in the final restoration stage, an official says.

The government’s revitalizing project of the gateway will be completed sometime in October, the Bam and its Cultural Landscape project manager, Afshin Ebrahimi, said recently.

“Currently, restoration for Arg-e Bam’s main entrance has entered its final stage,” the official noted.

An exquisite wooden door will be installed at the gateway to cap off the restoration project. The renovation work is based on original designs with an expectation of slight modifications, Ebrahimi added.

This is while, two other gateways to the adobe citadel have already been fully restored, with thirteen restoration workshops inside the citadel and three outside at the moment, the official said.

On December 26, 2003, a devastating earthquake struck in Kerman Province in southeastern Iran, nearly completely destroying the massive fortress and its environs.

The intense restoration of the citadel is expected to be completed within the next two years, the head of the provincial office of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization, Mahmoud Vafaei, said earlier this month.

“Roughly 70 percent of the site will be restored in total, since [UNESCO] regulations oblige us to ensure that the impact of the earthquake remains visible,” Vafaei added.

Bam and its landscape is located on the southern edge of the Iranian high plateau, close to the Iranian border shared by Pakistan. The citadel is highly regarded as an outstanding example of an ancient fortified settlement.

According to UNESCO, the origins of the citadel date to the Achaemenid period (6th to 4th centuries BC) and even beyond. The citadel served as an important crossroads betwixt trade routes.

AI/AI