TEHRAN—The historical core of the small village of Bonevar in the southwestern Khuzestan province has undergone some rehabilitation works, the deputy provincial tourism chief has said.

The village has several historical buildings and valuable monuments, which need restoration and protection, Gholamreza Salmanpur explained on Tuesday.

A budget of 3.5 billion rials ($11,700) has been allocated to the project, the official added.

The village’s indigenous and special architecture attracts many tourists, researchers, and anthropologists every year, so the restoration and organization of its historical core will increase tourism in this area, he noted.

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/AM