TEHRAN – The Urmia University plans to turn its historical campus into a garden museum, president of the northwestern Iranian university has said.

“The university seeks to turn the six-ha campus and its natural landscape into a garden museum,” CHTN quoted Rahim Hobbenaghi as saying on Tuesday.

“In the past, [the city of] Urmia was known as Baghshahr (“the city of gardens”) due to its numerous gardens. One of the remaining gardens is the green space of Urmia University, which is located near the Shahr-Chai River,” the official said.

Urmia, also spelled Orumiyeh, lies just west of Lake Urmia on a large fertile plain that yields grains, fruits, tobacco, and other crops. The population is mainly Azeri Turkish, with Kurdish, Assyrian Christian, and Armenian minorities. The remains of ancient settlements are scattered over the plain, as are traces of the ancient kingdom of Urartu.

AFM/