Cultural Heritage Lost: Case Study of Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

This research examines the natural and man-made hazards such as the case of urban development, nature, and legislation in the city of Isfahan in Iran. The goals are to show how cultural heritage is at risk of extinction, what the causes are, and how to find and offer solutions. Similar cases and previously studied have been conducted but although these studies all concluded how to use CH as a source of income from attracting tourism, and therefore, there were few details on all kinds of threats to our cultural heritage at once in recent years. On the other hand, the unsustainable progress alongside economic breakdown caused by international sanctions created a budget crisis which leads that has caused the Cultural Heritage Organization to not receive adequate funding. The study was designed as a single-case, qualitative method in which data were gathered through in-depth interviews and discussions with randomly chosen local residents, active heritage experts, and managers in the field of heritage preservation and urban planning. Isfahan has been chosen as a representative example of a metropolis with a variety of heritage participation projects. Although solving budget problems requires experts in this field so that we can maintain our CH sites, learning from the traditional art of the past and rethinking the concept of urban development management is essential to end the crisis of destruction of cultural heritage.

1. Introduction

Heritage conservation has become a big issue in global society. According to [1, 2], heritage is “our legacy from the past, what we live today, and what we will pass on to future generation”.

In 1972, Cultural heritage Center “UNESCO” divided heritage into two major parts: “Tangible heritage such as monuments and buildings” and “intangible heritage such as skills, instruments, and artifacts”. And conservation of heritage means all the process of looking after a tangible and intangible heritage to retain its cultural significance and to keep them safe from being destroyed or being damaged as well [3, 4]. Historical area and urban heritage planning in Iran have values as well as cultural, religious, social, economic, and physical concepts.

The Iranian Parliament approved the law on antiquities in October 1930 more than two decades after oil was discovered in the southwest of Iran. There is a consensus among researchers that Iran has one of the most reliable historical dynasties of any modern country. Having said that contemporary Iranians have not achieved a good score in protecting this sacred heritage, some have even given up on it.

Iran’s cultural heritage sites have faced many problems over the years. Since the eight-year Iran–Iraq war, irreparable damage has been done to cultural heritage sites, to the threat of US President Trump to destroy Iran’s ancient site on January 6, 2020.

In developing countries like Iran, urban fabrics in most cities are currently faced with similar issues. On one hand, they are experiencing rapid population growth, intense development pressure, rising area of historic districts, and destruction of cultural heritage. On the other hand, the 1930 law on antiquities remained the main source of the later law on the preservation of cultural heritage. These laws have not been revised or extended for several decades, and they cannot properly deal with the necessity of preserving cultural heritage and the development of the country.

In societies, where, on the one hand, financial resources are limited and, on the other hand, the basic social needs of education, housing, and health are urgent, cultural heritage activities usually do not have high priority. This research tries to find the problems that heritage sites are facing in order to be able to protect history and maybe they can be used optimally as a source of income.

In order to do that, this chapter will contain full changes in heritage protection programs and laws in Iran in the period of 33 years after the Islamic Revolution of Iran. This research is important because in the economic conditions of Iran, taking into account severe economic sanctions and the lack of income, cultural heritage sites can be a good alternative to the lack of oil sales. But first, to achieve this goal, all the roadblock problems must be identified, and then, a solution should be defined for them to reach the implementation stage.

2. Dilemmas and challenges in Isfahan city heritage conservation

2.1 Human settlement

2.1.1 Urban development and renewal

Urban renewal is the process of the rehabilitation of city areas by renovating or replacing dilapidated buildings. Urban development plans, particularly those of large and fast-growing cities, routinely declared significant portions of the historic fabric as “areas for urban renewal”, meaning that the existing historic structures could be removed to make way for new buildings and any elements [5]. According to Patrick Geddes [6], city of today must be different from the city of the past, but the physical form of a historic city should be considered as a whole, and every urban renewal activity should be done in complete accordance with the spirit of place.

History of Isfahan city core consisted of two parts, the old section, which started from the Old Square, close to the Friday Mosque, and the new section, which started from Naghshe-Jahan square today called the Meydane Emem [7].

Nowadays, Old Square (today called MEYDANKHONEH or Old Square) and JAME mosque of ATIGH are one of the important strength nodes of the city that bypassing of the time it has been changed in the development process. There was one major reason for these fundamental changes in the Old Square of Isfahan city which referred to below: [9, 10] (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Process of changing in Old Square. Source: [1, 8].

“Isfahan Municipality Renovation & Restoration Organization (IMR&RO) decided to renovation this region because of its revival of historical axis in order to the extension of the city to the south and increase the quality of life in heart of the city [8].”

As modernization and nationalism were two important bases for King Reza Shah Pahlavi’s reign, reigning from 1925 to 1941, a new architectural style was coined inspired by ancient Persian architecture and was applied in modern public buildings like banks, police headquarter and stations, National Museum, administrative buildings, and schools [11].

Although in this period attention was paid to the preservation of ancient architectural heritage, historic centers became the victim of urban development programs. In Isfahan, the former capital of the SAFAVID dynasty with an exemplary urban design from the seventeenth century, the oldest historic square of the city, ATIQ Square, was split into two parts by the new and modern streets. Since then, the square became a marginal place in the city’s life.

The historic centers that remained behind the modern developed roads and zones were turned into abandoned and marginal spaces. The original populations of these districts left them and migrated to new parts of the cities. The abandoned city spaces were and are the houses of marginalized people, with high rates of crime.

Once again, in Isfahan, another urban project raised concerns for the historic ATIQ Square.

The square, which was the historic core of the city’s expansion and development, had been torn by ABDUL RAZZAQ Road about 50 years ago and had been jeopardized again by another urban project. The development project of the square aims to turn it into a big shopping and business center with an underground road and a multi-story car park. The heavy construction of the project is faced with two major objections by both the archeologists and architects. Given the historical background of the square, the archeologists believe that before starting any operation, which could destroy the ancient evidence of the city development, archeological surveys had to be carried out, and the findings should be documented.

Construction-era bulldozers in the 1990s, while paving the streets and demolishing old historic baths and mosques, did not have the opportunity to pursue the project and left it to future generations. In the next decade, with the rampant increase in population and car volume in Isfahan, the traffic and the condition of the old city square, which had become the busiest place in the city, was getting worse day by day. This situation led the city managers to go to the old plan of the Old Square and start an important project with the slogan of reviving the history of Isfahan. A project that was supposed to destroy thousands of shops and extensive excavations in order to leave a modern underpass in this area for Isfahan in addition to the trapezoidal field of the Seljuk era.

During excavations in the late 2000s, many antiques were unearthed by loaders. According to Ali JAFARI-ZAND [11] (a prominent Iranian archeologist), building underpasses and squares without archeological research was a crime. The demolition of the circular square, known as the Old Square, and the construction of an underpass caused the destruction of many ancient artifacts and objects (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Before and after of ATIGH Square. Source: [2, 12].

Another example can be the restoration of the dome of Shah Mosque in Isfahan, which ended in “distortion and deformation” of this historical work from the NAGHSHE-JAHAN collection (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

Before and after the restoration of the Shah dome of Isfahan. Source: [3, 13].

The published photos of the restoration result of Isfahan’s Shah Mosque, which is also known as ABBASI JAME Mosque, show that not only depressions and protrusions have been created in it, but “even the cracks in the dome are not properly placed and the tiling patterns on the dome are not aligned”.

According to an interview with Dr. Mir ALAEI, the existence of laws for the protection of cultural heritage, especially registered world cultural heritage, has prevented projects that damage the historical and cultural fabric of Isfahan from being destroyed [14]. But the rest of the sites registered in the national heritage list are not safe from these damages.

According to research conducted by Professor AZADEH MASHAYEKHI [15], charitable foundations and holding companies independent of the municipality and the central government have vital contributions to carrying out urban development planning projects and models in Iran.

In many cases, these companies and independent holdings, regardless of the value of historical contexts, seek to destroy them, but the existence of protection laws for Iranian cultural heritage and international world heritage prevents these actions [14].

According to the Isfahan Cultural Heritage Officer [16], due to the existence of two sites registered in the World Heritage List, the annual municipal budget and urban development are much higher than the total budget of another province. But this budget is not spent on repairing the traditional and old texture of Isfahan city center.

According to direct observations, the central and old textures of the city of Isfahan (the sanctuary of two world heritage sites) are very unsuitable and are far from the standards of urban welfare for residents.

The director of Isfahan Municipality Renovation and Improvement Organization, referring to the existence of 2380 hectares of inefficient approved texture in Isfahan, told HAMSHAHRI NEWS: “According to the approvals of the Article 5 Commission, 12% of the total area of the city is worn texture in the form of 237 spots in 15 areas. The city has been identified and accommodates 23% of the population of Isfahan” [17].

Homes are not safe from the risk of earthquakes and fires, as is the lack of access to roads, infrastructure, and urban facilities, the low share of utility services, and the lack of some cultural and educational services. It can be said without exaggeration that one of the biggest and most complex problems of Isfahan metropolis is dilapidated houses and neighborhoods, which experts introduce with warning letters such as time bombs, unstable and inefficient texture, to draw the attention of national and local planners to the importance of renovation. Improve the living conditions of its residents, but after two or three decades of planning, the survival of many brick and mud houses in the heart of the old neighborhoods of the city center and even the suburbs, indicates that all plans to renovate and renovate these neighborhoods. On paper, it has failed to solve the problems of nearly 23 percent of the city’s population or the 500,000 Isfahan’ citizens are living in run-down neighborhoods. Mahmoud DARVISH, a pioneer of architecture, says that worn-out texture is very different from historical texture. There is a historical and worn texture that can be identified by architects and urban planners and restorers [18].

He points out that the creation of any access route in the historical context must be done with careful expertise and the need to pay attention to each of its buildings: it is like a surgery performed on worn parts of the body, and for this, it is necessary to evaluate the buildings; what is valuable should be preserved and what is worn out should be used for road construction and access to the historical context [18].

2.1.2 Transportation system

In September 2011, cultural heritage activists and bloggers from Isfahan published some new photos of the bridge (SIO-SE-POL/33 Bridge) that showed the cracks in different parts of the historic structure. They claimed that the Superintendent’s office of Historic Monuments in Isfahan was covering the cracks with fillers, before carrying out any structural analysis to distinguish their types. Although scientific analysis has not been carried out in order to distinguish the main reason for the cracks and their typology, many in Isfahan claim that they are the result of underground construction.

The construction of the underground in Isfahan started in 2002. In a part of its route, the underground passes under the historic center of the city and the river. This part of the project has been objected to by the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, the experts in conservation, and many activists. They believe that it may cause damage to the irreplaceable historic structures of the city.

The metro construction was stopped once at the request of the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, but later the president of the city council revealed that Iran’s Interior minister has ordered the construction to be resumed.

According to Dr. GHALEH NOEI for a metropolis like Isfahan with an urban population of 4,760,241, the existence of an efficient and comfortable urban transportation system is a must for the welfare of citizens [14].

In September 2009, the Tunnel-Boring Machine (TBM) that was working under the river was redirected and diverted 40 m from its main way and approached the bridge, because of a technical problem. A cultural heritage activist at that time claimed that the extracted rubbles from the machine, when it was working near the bridge, were a mixture of different materials with different colors, and it might have been a result of hitting the foundation of the bridge [19]. However, this was rejected by both the “Isfahan Urban Railway Organization” and the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization. On August 28, 2011, an expert from the Isfahan Office of Historic Monuments, who wanted to remain anonymous, there is no doubt that the TBM has caused damages. However, these claims cannot be proven unless scientific analyses can be done by an independent organization [11] (Figure 4).

Figure 4.

Cracks in thirty-three bridges. Source: [4, 20].

2.1.3 Air pollution

Air pollution is a key factor in the destruction of buildings and monuments. The impact of pollutants emitted into the atmosphere on materials is enormous and often irreversible. Corrosion from chemicals and pollution from particles can lead to economic losses, but most importantly, they lead to the destruction of our cultural heritage, an important component of our individual and collective identity.

Air pollution in recent years has caused damage to historical buildings. Figure 5 shows the deteriorated wooden ceiling of the Ali QAPU building (NAGHSHE-JAHAN Square), sixteenth century, in Isfahan, Iran. During the last four decades, the number of industrial plants and private cars has greatly increased and has resulted in worsened environmental pollution. As a result, the surfaces of many historical buildings have been affected [19].

Figure 5.

Deterioration of Wooden Ceiling of Ali QAPU palace. Source: [5, 21].

There are many basic but essential lessons that can be learned from traditional and regional architecture in Iran. The first and most important one is an adaptation to the environment, climate, and nature. A study of the typology of traditional and indigenous architecture of the country shows that creating architectural forms on the Iranian plateau have always been associated with climatic diversity and energy saving as well. Therefore, a wise reflection on this heritage leads to the emergence of a new understanding of local architecture. Figure 5 represents the traditional energy-saving architecture in ALI QAPU Palace in NAGHSHE-JAHAN Square.

Architectural patterns that progress carelessly across the country, unfortunately, ignore the features of the environment and the climate, and by reconnecting the architectural patterns and environment, there will be a great difference (Figure 6).

Figure 6.

ALI QAPU. Source: [6, 22].

2.2 Regulation challenges

2.2.1 Gap in updated legislation

Cultural heritage, in its broadest sense, from the tangible to the intangible, can contribute effectively to the country’s development process while remaining safe and respected only when supported by up-to-date protection and policies. The speed of development in Iran has made it necessary to study the real law of cultural heritage. However, not only has this review not been conducted by the Iranian parliament and other responsible organizations, but the gaps in this law open the way for further damage to such heritage [23].

In the post-conflict reconstruction period in Iran, which started in the 1990s, the municipality of Tehran applied a new policy for increasing its economic income, which was a necessity for urban development. In this process, both the approved detailed plan of the city and the protective recommendations for the historic urban fabrics were ignored by the municipality and the city managers [24].

For more than 80 years, Iranian archeologists, architects, and cultural heritage experts have been updating the National Heritage List, hoping that the registration will protect cultural property as an effective legal tool. But the reality is that registration is currently facing a legal challenge that has undermined its purpose. In 2010, a Supreme Court removed several historic buildings from the National Heritage List because property owners had claimed that their property rights had been violated by the Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran. In this case, the right of ownership was a permit to demolish the historic property and build modern buildings. The demolition of some of these properties has already begun. On the other hand, the Cultural Heritage Organization, which is officially the only authority responsible for registering monuments and sites in the National Heritage List, has announced that it will no longer register any statue without the consent and permission of its owners. This means that in the future, less valuable historic properties, especially houses, will be protected by law, as many homeowners prefer to demolish their historic homes and build multi-storey apartments [23].

The process of removing properties from the National Heritage List has just started, but it is not clear when and where it would stop. Since there are still many historic bazaars in Iranian cities, each of them containing numerous historic shops, caravanserais, and TEEMCHEHS (a kind of small passage with shops inside a bazaar), concerns about these places would be growing, if their owners decide to follow the newly opened way for removing their properties from the NHL.

Turning to the initial point, the first domestic law on cultural heritage was approved more than 80 years ago, and the next legislation was formed based on the primary law. The vacuums in the legislation, as shown above, have led to removing cultural properties from National Heritage List. The inefficient structure of the responsible organizations for the protection of cultural heritage has permitted development projects to ignore the economic, social, and cultural values of the historic city centers.

The first and subsequent laws on cultural heritage in Iran were adopted at a time when the idea of sustainable development had not yet been proposed globally. Therefore, the approach to cultural heritage, which is embodied in these laws, does not provide a creative way for such heritage to participate in the development process of the country. This is especially true of urban historical contexts and city centers. Although the law emphasizes the need to protect these centers, it has failed to provide a solution to protect them. Therefore, city managers always complain that they need too much money to protect these historic centers, which is never available. As a result, these sites remain defenseless against various natural and man-made erosion agents.

According to Article.171 of the Fifth Development Plan of Iran (2011, more details: Table 1), the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and all the municipalities annually must rehabilitate at least 10 percent of deteriorated urban fabrics. Here, the law is not explicit about the historic centers and cultural heritage. It just refers to the “deteriorated urban fabrics” that are not precisely historic centers or built heritage. Although the strategy for rehabilitation of the useless urban fabrics and centers is an appropriate policy for using these urban spaces, it could be more effective if the law and the Fifth Development Plan had a particular emphasis on the revitalization and rehabilitation of historic urban centers. Questionably, the role of the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) is not considered in this process. This unique opportunity, predicted in the Fifth Development Plan, would have been a solution for safeguarding the historic centers and integrating them into city life and their quality of life if the participation of the governmental and nongovernmental Cultural Heritage Organizations had been considered [24].

Periods	Courses	Important events	Policies	Measurements
The first rule of five-year plan	1979–1985; Iran-Iraq war	The victory of Islamic Revolution; War	Continuation of Pahlavi’s law	Paying attention to renovation of buildings
	1985–1991; Establishment of CHO	Formation of CHO	Strengthening the CH and preparing a plan for the protection and restoration of monuments	Isfahan’s neighborhood improvements plan
	1991–1994; Stabilization of CHO	Beginning post-war reconstruction	Planning with different scales to protect historic cities	Isfahan, Yazd, PASSARGAD, and BOSTAN Arch Projects
The second rule of five-year plan	1993–1996; Groundwork for fundamental and economic change	Approval of the second period plan of political, economic and social development	Increasing the ole of the CHO in development heritage protection plans Increase attention to restoration Increase attention to economic part of heritage	Using public participation in TABRIZ Bazar Project
The third rule of five-year plan	1996–2003; Socio-cultural development	Adaption of new laws	Formation of CH bases Presence of CHO in the field of laws and development	Reconstruction of many old neighborhoods through renovation plans
	2003–2004; Transformation of CHO	Merger of the CHO with tourism sector Separation of CHO from the ministry of Islamic Guidance and joining to the Presidential sector	Increasing attention to tourism Expand international cooperation Development of museums	Creation of 30 museum sites
The fourth rule of five-year plan	2004–2009 Strengthen tourism through heritage improvement The	the merger of the CH and Tourism Organization with the handicraft organization	Increasing tourism budget Restoration laws to monitor any interference in the registered sites	Registration of DAMAVAND mountain in the national list of natural heritage
The fifth rule of five-year plan	2009–2012; Increase the registration of CH in the world list	Transfer of the Central headquarter of CH to Shiraz and Isfahan	More registration in UNESCO list	Registration of Isfahan Grand Mosque in World Heritage List

Table 1.

Changes in heritage protection programs and laws in Iran in the period of 33 years after the Islamic Revolution of Iran. Source: prepared by the author, [24, 25].

“The Supreme Council of Urban Planning and Architecture of Iran is obliged to count the special areas in need of improvement and renovation in worn-out structures and to classify the projects located in these areas, with priority”

• Projects that are necessary for their timely implementation due to the public interest.

• Projects through the development of rules and regulations and public participation and support of the government, municipalities, and villages. It can be done over time.

Traditional urban culture and the modern spirit of the city must discuss the essence of the city such as the systematic conservation of heritage, the local lifestyle of citizenship, and community spirit. Heritage conservation and local community needs are two important factors that should work together to preserve the city spirit while considering the modernization and development of society in a culturally and historically sensitive manner. In recent years, with growing traffic and air pollution in metropolitan areas such as Isfahan city, it is obvious that there should be more attention to reducing the number of vehicles, especially in the historic city. In order to achieve sustainable development in Isfahan historical city, some suggestions were offered for solving legislation problems:

• Sustainable development regarding to sprit of city and building construction with improving the urban infrastructures.

• Decentralize planning considering value of cultural heritage and bazaar in city core.

• Making a physical welfare and facilitating the connection of interior structure of texture with urban structure.

• Recognizing the basic elements of the old cities structure (particularly the passages and squares) and preserving them in the new developments.

• Recognizing and adding the traditional architecture elements and using them a new architecture style.

Many private companies and influential individuals, having their own personal and illegal contracts with the municipality and the city council, have taken personal and high-interest projects for themselves, regardless of the quality of life of the residents or the damage that these projects can do to the historical context. As a result, very little of the grand budget received by municipality is spent on renovating and maintaining cultural heritage sites [26]. Therefore, the existence of protection laws for world heritage sites and registration in the world list has prevented many of these projects that are harmful to the cultural heritage of their culture, and their existence is very necessary.

During the author’s conversation with the renovators of NAGHSHE-JAHAN Square in Isfahan, they face the problem of a lack of budget, and for this reason, it is not possible for them to repair and maintain in the right way, and the work is very slow [28] (Figure 7).

Figure 7.

Repair and maintenance status of NAGHSHE-JAHAN Square. Source: [7, 27].

3. Intangible heritage

Based on national and international definitions, intangible cultural heritage refers to behavior, symbols, skills, tools, native knowledge, handicrafts, and cultural spaces of a nation. They are handed down from generation to generation.

Iran’s intangible cultural heritage includes performing arts, handicrafts and traditional crafts, skills related to handicrafts and traditional crafts, social traditions, customs, festivals and rituals, science and customs related to nature and the world, verbal traditions and other manifestations like languages and dialects.

Traditional skills of crafting and playing “Dotār” (2019), Art of crafting and playing with KAMANCHEH/KAMANCHA (2017), CHOGAN, a horse-riding game accompanied by music and storytelling (2017) and Flatbread making and sharing culture: LAVASH, KATYRMA, JUPKA, YUFKA (2016) are of Iranian Intangible Cultural Heritage elements in UNESCO List.

The UNESCO list also includes Nowrouz (2016). “NOWROUZ is the first day of the Iranian new year, occurring on the vernal equinox (usually March 20 or 21)”.

PAHLEVANI and ZOORKHANEI, “a traditional system of athletics and a form of martial arts originally used to train warriors in Iran (Persia)” rituals (2010), the traditional skills of carpet weaving in Fars (2010), traditional skills of carpet weaving in Kashan (2010), and RADIF of Iranian music (2009) are also Iranian Intangible Cultural Heritage elements in UNESCO List (Figure 8).

Figure 8.

Six intangible cultural heritages of Iran that have been registered in the UNESCO list. Source: [9, 29].

Until now, several historical and cultural works of Iran have been registered in the world by Turkey, Azerbaijan, etc.

Every country has an identity and a birth certificate that distinguishes it from other countries. Countries are trying to preserve their intangible heritage by registering it, their culture will not be interrupted, and more importantly, introduce this heritage to others as an identifier of their culture.

While the first coffee houses were established during the SAFAVID Shah (KING) TAHMASEB’s reign, Turkey registered the coffee house in its own name and is trying to confiscate the Iranian bath under the name of the Turkish bath. He also tries to register “TANBUR” which is basically a mystical instrument in Kermanshah and Kurdistan under his name. Worse, it seeks to register the art of calligraphy, which was invented by Iranians, and Iran has been the center of calligraphy in the world for thousands of years. This is also the case in the registration of celebrities.

Turkey confiscated and registered MOLAVI, the great Persian poet, in his own name. This country considered the language of “Avicenna” to be Turkish and built a hospital with the same name in the capital of Turkey. Turkey presents ABU-RIHAN, FARABI, and IBN- SINA as the proud people of Turkey [30].

The Republic of Azerbaijan with the support of Turkey has created more acute conditions for the Iranian cultural heritage by taking the lead in registering the intangible heritage that is rooted in the culture and civilization of Iran. Azerbaijan registered the music of “ASHIQLAR” which appeared in the SAFAVID period in Iran under its name in UNESCO. He registered the instrument “Tar” without mentioning the name of Iran. Dolma dish, which is one of the oldest Iranian dishes, was registered for this country [30].

Attempts to register YALDA (one of the oldest holidays in Iran, celebrated on December 21 every year, the YALDA Night marks the winter solstice in Central Asia—the day of the year when the night is the longest and the day is the shortest), Nan (Bread) LAVASH, CHUGAN, and North Khorasan music were other things that he tried to register independently, but failed [31]. The indifference or lack of attention of the officials of our country has caused the countries that emerged from the map of old Iran to take a new step every day to confiscate our heritage and cultural pride, using this weakness. Although the independent registration of a work in UNESCO has limitations; however, in joint and multinational cases, the annual quota is not necessary, and this is an opportunity for our country to register its intangible heritage sometimes with countries like Tajikistan and Afghanistan, which have more cultural affinity with Iranians and prevent their confiscation by other countries [32].

4. Result and discussion

The study of developments and changes in programs and laws for the protection of cultural heritage in Iran shows that in the period from 2009 to 2013, due to more attention to the economic aspect of cultural heritage and more emphasis on the political management of the Cultural Heritage Organization, cultural heritage protection. Gradually, it lost its importance. For this reason, the period from 1996 to 2003 can be chosen as the period of the most support and importance of cultural heritage in the fields of protection and management. To this end, the following table will show all developments, policies, programs, and laws for the protection of cultural heritage.

Based on interviews with cultural heritage experts and local citizens of Isfahan and asking them to explain the problems, according to the results, lack of proper management is the biggest threat to heritage sites. The preparation of the archeology database of Iran’s ancient sites was a scientific platform for the legislators and heritage experts, which required the project planners to pay attention to these sites and prevent possible damages. But the database, which was started three decades ago, has not achieved much. Cultural heritage in Iran is now facing a legal and administrative crisis that has threatened its continuity. When these challenges are solved, the lessons learned from this heritage can help advance the concept of sustainable development in the country [33].

5. Conclusion

Iran has followed different paths in the last 100 years. Many types of research show that there is a deep connection between the Iranian nation and its cultural heritage, but these deep feelings should be ignited.

As we have already mentioned, one of the most important reasons for the increase in damage to monuments is the lack of awareness of people about their value and their anger due to various problems. Therefore, efforts should be made to raise the awareness of local people about the value of safe historical monuments. In addition, all possible tools should be used at different levels depending on the task.

The 1930 law on antiquities remained the main source for the next legislation on the preservation of cultural heritage. These laws have not been reviewed and renewed for decades and cannot deal properly with both the necessity of the preservation of cultural heritage and the development of the country. The lack of updated legislation and effective organizations has caused legal and administrative difficulties in the safeguarding of such heritage. In some cases, the existing laws do not support the conservators against destructive development plans, such as the metro system in the historic center of Isfahan [3–11, 33].

In Isfahan, metro construction has become a real concern for the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO), conservators, and media, because the project created high risks for the historic bridge of SI-O-SE POL.

Another major issue facing Iranian cultural heritage is the lack of enough budget. While the government is neither able nor willing to make large investments, the people also have the slightest motivation to help as well. Although, people mostly intend to help or donate their contribution to protecting the monuments of their beliefs such as mosques or religious buildings.

Considering all the economic, political, and economic conditions, Iran is in one of its most difficult periods, and these problems have a direct and great impact on all aspects, including cultural heritage. Many financial problems have caused the Ministry of Cultural Heritage to face a shortage of funds, and this lack of adequate funding or investment in this sector is the biggest problem facing the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.

As we can see in the result of the online survey that has been done by the author in Feb 2022, the citizens of Isfahan, considering all the problems that cultural heritage sites and world heritage protection laws have created for their quality of daily life, with 93.7% of votes in favor, want to preserve and maintain all cultural heritage sites (national and global).

According to the conducted surveys, unfortunately, the majority of the general public does not know about the intangible heritage of Iran. And that the news of the loss of intangible heritage is reduced next to other big news such as the news of economic and political problems and not only the attention of the officials but also not the attention of the people.

According to ROSTAM BAHRAMI [32], a senior expert in international relations from KHAWARAZMI University, in order to register a work globally, we must first register them in our country’s calendar and information about those works in various media so that people are aware of these works.

Second, the relevant institutions, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the management organization, academies, parliamentary commissions, etc., should formulate the necessary laws, predict future events, and provide solutions while fully coordinating. Provide and include the necessary budget. Considering that the files submitted early (files pending registration) are given priority, the Ministry of cultural heritage should prepare a list of heritage that can be confiscated by other countries and act as a preventive measure by sending it to UNESCO. Cultural heritage should play a key role here.

Thirdly, apart from political issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be highly active in the cultural field and investigate cultural issues by developing regulations and budgets for embassies and cultural consultations, identifying, documenting, and introducing our heritage in the region.

In order to achieve sustainable development in the historical city of Isfahan, suggestions were made to solve these problems:

• Increasing the sense of dependence on historical spaces and convergence with the new structure and creating new forms similar to the old structure.

• Limit the entry of private cars by improving public transport systems and traffic management on domestic roads

• Need for multi-story parking in various crowded places like the city center and BAZARs.

• Updating laws and policies related to heritage protection and adapting new methods related to that issue.

• Employing experts in this field.