The Italian Ambassador to Tehran, Giuseppe Perrone, carried out an official mission, from 8 to 10 December, in the Fars Province, the most important cultural and archaeological centre of Iran, the cradle of the Achaemenid and Sassanid civilisations.
The primary purpose of the visit was the inauguration of the museification works of the Tol-e Ajori gate, near the Persepolis terrace, by an Italian-Iranian archaeological mission co-led by Prof. Pierfrancesco Callieri of the University of Bologna and Prof. Alireza Askari Chaverdi of the University of Shiraz.
In the monument, brought to light after ten challenging stratigraphic excavation campaigns, the archaeologists recognised a proto-Achaemenid copy of the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. The Gate of Tol-e Ajori, built after the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great in 539 B.C., has a layout similar to that of the Babylonian gate but larger (40 by 30 metres), a real ‘royal paradise’. Particularly significant is the decorative apparatus of the gate depicting Babylonian animals, the bull and the mushkhushshu serpent-dragon.
After the official inauguration of the site and some conservation work to make the area a museum, the gate of Tol-e Ajori will become the first stop for visitors to Persepolis. It will be a precious testimony of the Italian participation in the research and conservation of the most important archaeological site in Iran.
During his visit, Ambassador Perrone also visited the restorations carried out at the Persepolis site by the Italian section of Restorers Without Borders and the archaeological area of Firuzabad, a significant site of the Sassanid dynasty, where two Italian study and research missions of the University of Bologna and La Sapienza University are operating. Thanks to the efforts of Prof. Callieri of the University of Bologna, the monuments of Firuzabad were inscribed among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2018.
The mission was accompanied by a visit to the Industrial University of Shiraz and meetings with the Mayor of Shiraz and the Governor of Fars Province.
