Tehran – The tourist infrastructure of the natural spa region in Dehloran, the western province of Ilam, is to be expanded, said the province’s tourism director.

Abdolmalek Shanbehzadeh announced on Saturday that the project had been allocated a budget of five billion rials (about $ 120,000 at an official exchange rate of 42,000 rials per dollar).

With abundant mineral hot springs, this region could become a tourist hub for the country, the official added.

In close cooperation with the private sector, organization, flooring and brightening have been carried out in the region, he explained.

The Dehloran Plain is best known for the excavations at several prehistoric sites that clarified the origin and development of settled agricultural villages and towns in the area, as well as for elevations that document the history of settlement up to modern times.

As a relatively small and remote rural area, it has always been affected by political, economic and technological developments in the adjacent regions of Khuzestan, Zagros and Mesopotamia. As early as the 3rd millennium BC And throughout its later history, according to the Iranica Encyclopedia, it was under the political control of the kingdoms in one or another of these regions.

Although cuneiform texts have not been found at any of the Dehloran sites, the most famous hill, Tepe Musiyan, can be identified as ancient Urua, an Elamite city known from Mesopotamian texts.

Dehloran was on a trade route connecting the Zagros Mountains with Mesopotamia. In the 1st millennium, the route ran through the region between the Achaemenid capitals of Susa and Ecbatana.

From the 18th century, Dehloran has been a winter sports destination for the local tribes.

ABU / AFM