55% Rise in Meymand Tourism

The ancient Meymand Village in Kerman Province has seen a 55% hike in the number of tourists since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21), compared with the same period of last year, the head of the provincial office of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization said.

Mahmoud Vafaei added that European and Asian countries, particularly China, largely contributed to the increase besides domestic travelers. "The international status accorded to the village by UNESCO played a major role in the noticeable progress," Vafaei was quoted as saying by CHTN.  Meymand, which is Iran's oldest surviving village that have been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years, was set to receive world heritage status in 2013, but the jury found its dossier to be incomplete.

Finally, the ancient village was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in July 2015, during the World Heritage Committee’s 39th session in Bonn, Germany.

It is the province’s third site on World Heritage List after Bam Citadel and Shazdeh Garden. Meymand–a village of troglodytes, or cave dwellers–received UNESCO’s Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes in 2005.

"To improve tourist facilities in the village, four ecolodges and a traditional restaurant have so far been established," Vafaei said, elaborating on tourism infrastructures in the area. "Local residents have received training on how to treat and guide tourists," he added.  Located near Shahr-e Babak city in the southeastern province of Kerman, Meymand Village dates back to the Stone Age. The village was once a troglodyte settlement providing cozy caves and rock shelters for early inhabitants of the Iranian Plateau some 12,000 years ago, according to Heritageinstitute.com.