QESHM, Hormuzgan, March 18--United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced that Qeshm Geopark has been registered on its global network of geoparks.
Qeshm Geopark, located in western Qeshm, boasts of the world’s longest salt cave which is more than 6,000 meters in length and has unique characteristics.
The cave has a width of 40 meters and a height of more than 30 meters. It also has wonderful and beautiful stalactites.
The world cultural body noted that since the features of Qeshm Geopark meets UNESCO’s criteria, it decided to register it as a global natural heritage.
According to UNESCO’s criteria, geoparks are created with the objective of preserving natural heritage and earth and safeguarding these sites amounts to protecting the environment.
On the other hand, geoparks provide the best venue for young people to learn about nature and they can greatly help to promote tourism, handicrafts, introduction of culture and history and creating jobs.
More than 30 hectares from western section of Qeshm Island was officially allocated for construction of geopark in 2003. Qeshm geopark has many advantages for different sciences, particularly geology, zoology, botany and archaeology.

TEHRAN, March 18--Isfahan Cultural Committee has announced its programs for the upcoming Iranian new year, Norouz, holidays which begin on March 21.
According to CHN, the committee has been obligated to undertake programs in the form of festivals and competitions in different sectors.
The programs which begin on Sunday at Isfahan’s Qadir Garden include the establishment of painting stations as well as holding expositions, street plays and fish festival.
A green-vase competition and exhibition will be also held on March 31.
A photo exhibitions featuring historical monuments, industries and professions of Isfahan, which was designated as the Cultural Capital of the Islamic World, will be held during the holidays in Qadir Garden.

Religious ceremonies to mark Arbaein, the 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shiite Imam coincides this year with the first day of the Iranian new year Norouz.
This will give the Iranians a chance to reach out to their inner selves as they prepare to renew their hearts according to solemn religious calls while remaining faithful to their traditional New Year rites, observed a reputed director-cum-playwright, Mohammad Saleh Ala in an interview with Iran Daily.
“It so happens that at times, certain seasons create such magic allowing for both the sun and the moon to appear together on the same horizon, or when we have rain along with sunshine during certain seasons in our beautiful land,“ Saleh Ala commented metaphorically about the up-coming Iranian New Year.
“It is as though our people have the opportunity to renew their souls along with their physical state of existence and so I think the (Iranian) year 1385 will definitely be a greater feast than ever before,“ he added.
Saleh Ala who is one of the most popular figures among contemporary Iranian playwrights and authors in TV and radio programs has manifested his own vision of virtue and sensitivity as opposed to skill and visual
arts.
“A mere look into the great works of our ancient poets such as Abu Reihan Biruny and Khayyam, will unfold the revered values that such great thinkers held for our
traditional Norouz. The fact that Arbaein will coincide with Norouz, is in itself a great omen since it is as though two mirrors will be set against one another, allowing us, as Iranians, to rediscover ourselves in both contexts once again,“ he elaborated.
His special program set to be aired on New Year, titled Arbaein and Norouz, on national television’s Channel 3 of national television, will deal with the absolute manifestations of Iranian identity while elucidating the exact standing of the Iranians in religious and national beliefs.

TEHRAN, March 18--A music album entitled ’Peace Songs’ composed by Iranian musician, Shahriyar Kohanzad and performed by Loris Tjeknovarian was released by Beethoven Publishers.
Kohanzad recalled that ’Peace Songs’ was performed live at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall for ten days in September 2004. However, he noted after the live performance this music was recorded in Dolby format by Armenia’s Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Loris Tjeknovarian.
“Peace Songs comprises 19 musical pieces, including ’Disaster’, ’Warning’, ’Isthmus’, ’Preacher’, ’Sermon’, ’Love Ambiguity’, ’Witness’ and ’Contradiction’. Music pieces representing various cultures have been included in this album. The lyrics are both in Persian and English languages. Persian songs are aimed at giving a kind of Iranian identity to the album, he said noting, “Inclusion of modern music among classic pieces is meant to depict the contradiction prevalent in the modern world. I hope that ’Peace Songs’ can convey a message of peace from Iran to rest of the world that is suffering from wars.“
He disclosed that he is currently working on another work titled ’Roumi’s Love, Hugo’s Heart’.
“This work tries to highlight the common aspects of people of the West and East to the notion of love. Hence, I have compared and contrasted Roumi’s beliefs with those of Victor Hugo in this respect,“ Kohanzad concluded.

TehranÕs historical texture is currently not in satisfactory conditions.

TEHRAN, March 18--Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department in Tehran province has opposed any plans to renovate the historical texture of the capital’s District 12 as propped by the municipality.
Tehran Municipality announced that renovation of Tehran’s District 12 is in line with a comprehensive plan and should be implemented early in the next Iranian year which starts March 21.
It noted that this is while the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department has declared its opposition to the project unless the plans are approved by cultural heritage experts.
Meanwhile, the department’s technical consultant, Mehdi Memarzadeh, noted that Tehran Municipality has not yet provided his office a draft of the plan and it is for the same reason that it is against the implementation of any renovation works.
“Tehran’s historical texture is currently not in satisfactory conditions. Hence, implementation of non-technical projects can inflict irreparable damages to Tehran’s different districts,“ he added.

TEHRAN, March 18--Some 250 children books from 30 Iranian publishers will be presented at the Bologna Book Fair in Italy which begins on March 25.
Announcing this, Director of Children and Teens Book Publishers Cultural Association Borzou Sarizdi added the books have been translated and will be taken to Italy by a group of publishers, reported the Persian daily Etemad quoting Mehr News Agency.
Referring to the creation of an international section at the Kids Book Society website by the time the Bologna event opens, he said the move will help increase interaction between Iranian publishers and their foreign counterparts.
“We will try to make this website operational according to our programming and objectives,“ he added.
Sarizdi pointed out that the annual Bologna Book Fair provides a good opportunity for Iranian publishers to present books for children.
The 47th Bologna International Children’s Book Fair will be open to the public from March 27 to 30.

BEIJING, March 18--In a region known for its 2,000 year-old archeological treasures, Chinese archaeologists have now discovered the ruins of 29 hamlets and towns that date back more than 4,500 years ago, reported Xinhua .com.
Located in the northern part of Shaanxi, the ancient communities were built on hills and cover an area of between 100,000 sq m to 400,000
sq m.
The ruins show that people had mastered building techniques and had constructed houses and stone walls around their community, said Wang Weilin, a research fellow with Shaanxi provincial Archaeological Research Institute.
The discovery of the ancient site will help scientists better understand the relationship between hamlets and the environment during the New Stone Age period, Wang said.
Archaeologists used GPS technologies to identify the ruins and made excavations at seven of the sites.
Wang said they had unearthed the foundations of 96 houses at the ruins at a 300,000-sq-m site that covered three hills. Stone stairs were shared by people living on two of the three hills, and the ruins of a sacrificial altar all provided important materials for studying architecture styles of the pre-history buildings, Wang said.
Archaeologists also found the ruins of a hamlet covering about 100,000 sq m, which consists of rows of houses nestled at the same elevation on the slope of four hills. The community walls were formed by two to four layers of stone. Some walls are 400 meters long.