US and Israeli strikes on Iran caused widespread damage to historical landmarks and endangered the ancient nation’s cultural heritage, experts said.
More than 130 Iranian landmarks were destroyed or damaged by either direct or nearby strikes across almost six weeks of bombing, according to the nation’s cultural heritage ministry.
Unesco said it was “deeply concerned” by the damage to World Heritage sites in Iran and Lebanon — where Israel has been fighting Hizbollah — and was working to implement “emergency measures aimed at securing sites and collections”.
Cities such as the capital Tehran and Isfahan, which came under heavy bombardment, are filled with palaces, historic buildings and museums from rulers such as the Safavids (1501-1736) and Qajar dynasty (1789-1925).
Many were damaged by debris and shockwaves from nearby blasts as the US and Israel launched thousands of strikes on what they said were regime and military targets.
Speaking before a fragile two-week ceasefire announced by the US and Iran went into effect this week, Unesco said obligations to protect cultural heritage were “enshrined in international law”.
Among the most prominent landmarks to be hit was the Golestan Palace, Tehran’s sole Unesco World Heritage site and former Qajar royal residence. The UN agency said the site was damaged from the shockwave of an air strike on Arg Square, which is at the heart of Tehran’s historic downtown. A police station and courthouse in the area were targeted in strikes.
Hassan Fartousi, secretary-general of the Iranian National Commission for Unesco, said co-ordinates of heritage sites were submitted before and during the war to Unesco, which in turn informed the other parties to the conflict. “These measures proved useless,” he said.
Local media reported that Iranian officials had during the conflict hastily placed Blue Shield symbols on some landmarks, a blue-and-white emblem meant to be visible from the air to safeguard sites. Fartousi claimed the signs were “not respected”.
But while the ceasefire has brought attacks in Iran to a halt, the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah continued in Lebanon this week.
Unesco said it had verified damage to World Heritage sites there too, and added it was working to move “cultural property from vulnerable archaeological sites to secure locations”.
The Israel Defense Forces said it did not intentionally attack cultural sites, adding it “conducts its strikes in accordance with international law” and “takes all feasible measures to mitigate collateral damage to civilians and civilian objects, including cultural sites”.
The US state department said its strikes were “directed at military and strategic assets . . . They are not directed at the Iranian people, cultural or historical sites.”
President Donald Trump had repeatedly threatened widespread destruction in Iran, saying before the ceasefire that the US would bomb the country “back to the Stone Ages”. Such comments provoked widespread revulsion in Iran, even among those with little love for the ruling Islamic regime.
“We’ve protected historic sites for thousands of years, only to see them bombed recklessly now,” Marjan, a resident of Tehran, said, using a pseudonym. “Then Trump says we belong to the ‘Stone Ages.’”
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles and drones fired at Israel and Gulf states, hitting US bases, civilian infrastructure, energy facilities and international shipping.
An Iranian attack damaged a historic 20th-century Bauhaus building in Tel Aviv’s White City, a Unesco World Heritage site, according to Blue Shield International, a Netherlands-based non-profit set up to safeguard cultural heritage in conflicts.
While the main structure of Tehran’s Golestan Palace remains intact, videos showed that shockwaves from nearby explosions have caused masonry to fall and shattered parts of its famed Hall of Mirrors.
Earlier this week, large concrete blocks had been placed around the palace to hide the full extent of the damage.
Massive explosions last month also damaged the Sa’dabad complex in northern Tehran, home to 110 hectares of palaces, galleries and natural forests.
The site, which was the residence of the last shah before he was ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution, includes a building where Iranian presidents hold welcome ceremonies for high-ranking foreign guests.
Several sites in Isfahan, renowned for its ancient architecture, were also damaged.
An air strike that appeared to target the governor’s office — itself a Safavid-era monument — damaged nearby historic sites.
The 17th-century Chehel Sotoun Palace — named “40 columns” in Persian, after the 20 columns mirrored in the garden fountain — sustained damage including cracks to Persian miniature murals and damage to its honeycomb vaulted ceilings, according to pictures.
In Khorramabad in western Iran, several sites near the third-century Falak-ol-Aflak Castle were destroyed, according to the ministry.
Iran’s minister of cultural heritage Reza Salehi-Amiri told state television on Monday — before the ceasefire — that more than 300 researchers were assessing the extent of damage so that restoration could begin immediately after the war.
Fartousi said it was hard to reconcile US and Israeli claims of using precise targeting with the damage inflicted on landmarks. “How is it possible, with all that intelligence and advanced technology?” he asked.
It is not the first time that Iran’s cultural heritage has been at risk. Heritage expert Eskandar Mokhtari told local media that the pre-Islamic Sassanid-era fire temple in Qasr-e Shirin, western Iran, was destroyed during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and has not been fully restored.
Fartousi said that, this time too, restoration would take years. “Restoration means that for some of these sites, authenticity will be lost forever. Other buildings can be rebuilt, but what about cultural heritage? . . . Protecting them is a shared global responsibility.”
Additional reporting by Andrew England in London, James Politi and Abigail Hauslohner in Washington and James Shotter in Jerusalem. Cartography by Steven Bernard and Cleve Jones