As U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran continue, international concern is growing as Iran's representative cultural heritage sites are being damaged one after another. The Iranian government said at least six major cultural properties, including World Heritage sites, were damaged in the strikes, and UNESCO said it has confirmed actual damage.
According to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Iran, on the 9th (local time) Israel struck Isfahan in central Iran, causing severe damage to the Ali Qapu Palace and the Chehel Sotoun Palace and Garden, built during the 17th-century Safavid dynasty. Isfahan, Iran's third-largest city, sits at a key transportation hub on the Iranian plateau and, as a former center of trade where diverse historical artifacts gathered in one place, is also called the "Jewel of Persia."
The Iranian government said the Isfahan strike occurred during an attack targeting the governor's residence near Naqsh-e Jahan Square. This area is dense with Iran's representative cultural heritage, and Naqsh-e Jahan Square, created during the Safavid Empire, alone spans about 964,000 square feet (about 89,600 square meters). It is a representative historical landscape of Iran where a central garden, a vast bazaar (market street), palaces and mosques come together.
Photos and videos released by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts show murals inside the palace falling to the floor, floral decorative tiles shattered, and hand-carved wooden panels torn from the walls and ceiling. Small mirror pieces decorated in star and hexagonal patterns were also scattered on the floor by the blast impact.
The same strike reportedly also brought down the turquoise tiles of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan, considered a landmark of the city. The Jameh Mosque of Isfahan is characterized by a dome adorned with Persian calligraphy and a splendid minaret (a spire to announce prayer times), and, having been expanded for more than 1,000 years since the 8th century, is classified as the oldest and largest congregational mosque (Congregational Mosque·central Islamic temple) in Iran.
A week before that strike, the Golestan Palace, known as the "Versailles of Iran," was heavily damaged during an attempt to target a downtown Tehran police station. In the palace, famed as the court of the Qajar dynasty, the signature "Hall of Mirrors" saw all its mirrors shattered, and the garden was observed to be covered with debris.
Damage also continued near Isfahan. According to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, the Falak-ol-Aflak Castle in Khorramabad, Lorestan Province, also suffered severe damage from airstrikes. The castle is an ancient fortress that served as a military stronghold and barracks during the Sasanian dynasty, and the Iranian government said continued bombing targeting the local Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts office damaged the fortress and the museum as well.
UNESCO also officially confirmed this damage. Spokesperson Monia Azzouine said a UNESCO assessment found that UNESCO-listed World Heritage sites such as the Golestan Palace, the traditional architectural site Chehel Sotoun (meaning 40 columns in Persian), and the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan were damaged, and added that buildings in a protected area near the prehistoric site of the Khorramabad Valley also appeared to have been harmed.
Azzouine, the Spokesperson, said, "We are deeply concerned about reports of cultural heritage being destroyed in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and neighboring countries." UNESCO previously provided the exact coordinates of world heritage and national symbols to the parties to the conflict and asked them to exclude those points from targets. Cultural properties are prohibited from destruction and looting during armed conflict under international law.
In response, Iran's Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts said it installed "blue flags," the protective emblem under wartime international conventions, at all cultural heritage sites to notify U.S. and Israeli fighter jets that they were protected, but claimed it had no effect. The Israeli military, for its part, said it did not directly strike those cultural heritage sites, but did not provide specific answers on whether damage occurred during attacks on nearby military and administrative facilities.
As the damage mounts, anger and shock are spreading rapidly in Iranian society. Naghmeh Sohrabi, a prominent Middle East historian at Brandeis University, said, "These sites contain historical memory that transcends ideology," and criticized the indiscriminate bombing, saying, "They can be considered the cultural heritage of all humanity, not only Iran." Isfahan Governor Mehdi Jamalinejad also said, "Attacking the symbols of the world's oldest civilizations with state-of-the-art weapons is a barbaric act."
Meanwhile, as the war escalates, civilian casualties are also rising quickly. The Iranian Red Crescent Society, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization, said on the 28th of last month that since military clashes began, more than 10,000 civilian buildings have been destroyed or damaged by airstrikes. Among them, about 7,500 were residential facilities, the most of any category, with damage also reported across commercial facilities, schools and medical facilities.