TEHRAN – Tourist attractions across the southwestern Khuzestan province attracted over five million visitors during the Iranian new year holidays (Noruz) from March 16 to April 2, the provincial tourism chief has said. 

A total of 5,382,102 people visited historical sites and natural sights throughout the province during the mentioned period, Peyman Nabhani explained on Tuesday, IRNA reported. 

The city of Dezful gained the lion’s share of the visits followed by Lali, Andika, Shush, and Andimeshk, the official added. 

Khuzestan is home to three UNESCO World Heritage sites of Susa, Tchogha Zanbil, and Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System yet it is a region of raw beauty that its visitors could spend weeks exploring. The province is also a cradle for handicrafts and arts whose crafters inherited from their preceding generations.

Lying at the head of the Persian Gulf and bordering Iraq on the west, Khuzestan was settled about 6000 BC by a people with affinities to the Sumerians, who came from the Zagros Mountains region. Urban centers appeared there nearly contemporaneously with the first cities in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium. Khuzestan, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, came to constitute the heart of the Elamite kingdom, with Susa as its capital.

ABU/AFM