TEHRAN – The west-central city of Hamedan will become a hub for children’s tourism, an official with the city’s municipality has said.

There is a plan to develop Hamedan into the country’s hub for children’s tourism, Amir Fathian explained on Friday.

With its 250-hectare park of Ekbatan, Hamedan will become a child-friendly vacation destination, the official added.

Private sector investors can make good returns by investing in this park, which has an investment capacity of 20 trillion rials ($50 million), he noted.

Experts say that nomadic tourism, children’s tourism, virtual museums, and training guides for cultural heritage sites are among the untapped potentials of the travel sector.

However, tourism for children and adolescents is somehow a neglected topic, despite the importance of a child’s life trajectory up to the age of 17/18 in terms of the psychological and social impact it has on their formation of subjectivity.

Known in classical times as Ecbatana, Hamedan was one of the ancient world’s greatest cities. Pitifully little remains from antiquity, but significant parts of the city center are given over to excavations. Ecbatana was the capital of Media and subsequently a summer residence of the Achaemenian kings who ruled Persia from 553 to 330 BC.

Hamedan has had many names: it was possibly the Bit Daiukki of the Assyrians, Hangmatana, or Agbatana, to the Medes, and Ecbatana to the Greeks. One of the Median capitals, under Cyrus II (the Great; died 529 BC) and later Achaemenian rulers, it was the site of a royal summer palace.

About 1220 Hamedan was destroyed by the Mongols. In 1386, it was sacked by Timur (Tamerlane), a Turkic conqueror, and the inhabitants were massacred. It was partly restored in the 17th century and subsequently changed hands often between Iranian ruling houses and the Ottomans.

Sitting on a high plain, Hamedan is graciously cool in August but snow prone and freezing from December to March. In summer, the air is often hazy.

Ali Sadr cave, Ganjnameh inscriptions, Avicenna Mausoleum, Hegmataneh hill, Alaviyan dome, Jameh mosque, and St. Stephanos Gregorian Church are amongst Hamedan’s attractions to name a few.

ABU/AM