TEHRAN –A medium-sized 5.3 magnitude earthquake rattled parts of Salehabad city in the western province of Ilam on Sunday, but caused no damage to historical sites across the province.

Based on field visits by the province’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Department, no serious damage to historical structures and monuments has been reported so far, the provincial tourism chief Abdolmalek Shanbehzadeh announced on Monday, CHTN reported. 

Due to the possible occurrence of aftershocks, experts are on standby to inspect the possible harms to historical sites of the province, the official added.

Iran is crisscrossed by major geological fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years.

Home to almost half of Iran’s UNESCO sites, western Iran is a land of hospitable people, wild extremes, and wilder history, and it may be an independent traveler's adventure playground. The region also witnessed the rise and fall of many great empires once bordering Mesopotamia, Ottoman Turkey, and Czarist Russia.

The name "Ilam" comes from "Elam", the pre-historic civilization that ruled the area in modern southwest Iran from 2700 BC to 539 BC. Archaeological findings date human settlement of the area to around 5000 BC.

ABU/MG