Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization has allotted a budget of 20 billion rials ($0.4 million) to restore the infrastructure around Surt springs, locally known as Badab-e Surt, located in Mazandaran Province.
According to Seifollah Farzaneh, head of the provincial ICHHTO office, the funds will be spent to build access roads, water transfer pipes and install solar panels to enhance lighting in the area, ISNA reported.
"The springs are jointly managed by Forests, Range and Watershed Management Organization, the Regional Water Authority and the provincial ICHHTO," Farzaneh said.
Located 95 kilometers south of the city of Sari in the northern province and seven kilometers west of Orost village, Badab-e-Surt Springs were registered as Iran's second natural site after Damavand Mount on the list of National Heritage Sites in 2008.
After inscription, the site's buffer zone was defined which bans any urban development, construction and tourism project around the springs, he added.
Badab-e-Surt's terraces are made of travertine, a sedimentary rock deposited by flowing water from two active mineral springs, located at 1,840 meters above sea level. It is believed that the mineral springs were created during the Paleocene era, at the same time the latest folds in the Alborz mountain range were formed.
The first spring contains very salty water that gathers in a small natural pool; its water is considered to have medicinal properties, especially as a cure for rheumatism and some types of skin diseases and conditions.
The second spring has a sour taste and is predominately orange mainly due to the large iron oxide sediments at its outlet.
Badab is a Persian compound of "Bad" meaning gas, and "ab" meaning water, translating to "fizzy water", which refers to the spring's carbonated mineral water. Surt is an old name for the Orost village and a Persian word meaning "intensity".
