TEHRAN -- A team of archaeologists working at the ruins of a Sassanid city in southern Iran’s Fars Province said that the round structure recently discovered at the site is most likely an 1100-year-old tomb.

They previously believed that the structure, which was unearthed during the second season of the rescue excavations that began in early February at the future location of the reservoir of the Salman-e Farsi Dam, was a minaret.
According to an assessment of the rubble scattered around the site, the original height of the structure is estimated to have been between 9 and 11 meters.
“Several structures resembling this discovery have been previously unearthed at archaeological sites in northern Iran,” team director Alireza Jafari-Zand told the Persian service of CHN on Friday.
Jafari-Zand and his team have surmised that the structure is a tomb because 10th century Iranian tombs were commonly made with bricks.
The 360-hectare city contains ruins of structures from the post-Achaemenid period and the Sassanid and early Islamic eras, which will be entirely submerged when the Fars Regional Water Company fills the dam.
The company had begun filling the reservoir of the dam in mid-March 2007. However, the process was halted after the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) lodged an official complaint.
Afterwards, the archaeological team was organized and dispatched to the region to conduct rescue excavations.