TEHRAN -- The beautiful “Persian Gulf” sculpture glitters in the Persian Gulf port of Assaluyeh in Iran’s Bushehr Province.

The huge travertine artwork made by Simin Ekrami was unveiled a few days before Noruz (mid-March) in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Persian service of Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday.
“The design is an adaptation of a map depicted by the Iranian geographer of the 10th century, Abu-Ishaq Estakhri in his book “Maps of Lands.” In his map, the Persian Gulf is portrayed as a very beautiful bird, and the two rivers of Dejleh and Mehran and the two ports between the rivers stand like a comb on the head of the bird. Its breast bears three holes resembling the three islands of Kharg, Lask and probably Lavan,” said sculptor Ekrami.
“I began my research on the idea of the sculpture many years ago, and I always had this dream in my mind to make one based on Estakhri’s maps. This dream came true after 19 years.
“The 12-ton sculpture was made in 15 pieces and is three meters in height, and 4.5m wide. The pieces were later carried to Assaluyeh by a truck. The 5-step pedestal is made of black granite. The first and largest step is 15x15m and the last fifth step, which bears the stone bird, is 5x5 m,” she described.
She also explained why she chose the travertine for her work and said, “Since the region Assaluyeh is polluted with various kinds of acids in the air, bronze was not a good choice as it becomes black within a short time. I chose travertine and, of course, it was covered with a protective layer. Most of the Greek temples are also made of travertine and held up for thousands of years. So travertine is the best choice for open spaces.”
She further continued that the project took only five weeks to complete, adding, “If I did not work on the design in my mind, it would have been impossible to finish the work in such as short time.”
Ekrami’s other sculpture “The Earth” was set up at Tehran’s Goft-o-Gu Park in 1995.