cultural and artisticHeritage and Tourism

Awareness, the way to deal with cultural vandalism



On the last day of the second month of autumn 1400, a tourist from Ukraine, visiting the Choghaznabil site, disregarding the visiting charter, crossed the guard path and went to the post (platform) of the ziggurat courtyard, and another filmed him and shared them on social networks. Laid load; Unfortunately, in addition to Iran and Choghaznabil, this has happened in many countries and their ancient sites.

The phenomenon of damaging historical monuments regardless of their value and importance is called “vandalism”; Vandalism occurs when there is little or no awareness and belonging. The action of this Ukrainian tourist is also in the category of cultural vandalism. Facing this issue first raises the question, “What factors in the archaeological site can protect the artifacts?” Here I need to mention that in the Choghaznabil World Heritage Site, at the beginning of arrival and before preparing the ticket, there is a sign called “Visit Charter” which has introduced the rules of visiting in Persian and English and pictograms.

“Do not cross barriers”, “Do not step on works” and… are among these rules. The pictograms of the visit charter are also repeated along the signs introducing structures and buildings; Unfortunately, neither tourists nor, most of the time, tour guides pay attention to these rules, and this lack of attention leads to behavior that is far from the dignity of world heritage.

Another question is about the security forces of the area. Is this number of people with these dimensions and the size of the area enough? Unfortunately, the number of security forces in the area, due to the funds and administrative issues attached to it, is much less than the need and size of the area, which makes it impossible for these forces to be present in all parts of the area.

Fortunately, the installation of CCTV cameras this year has helped a lot in maintaining the area and speeding up attention to any norms in the area; But given the size of the area, it will definitely take a long time from watching such behavior through the camera to accessing the tourist and the necessary reminder. Training the security forces in how to deal with such tourists is also one of the topics that has been held in the form of workshops in the base many times.

The most important message, however, is the issue of training tour guides, which has been repeatedly emphasized on the need to do so. The outstanding global value of the work and role of the tourist and tourism in the preservation of an ancient site will become more clear to tourist guides.

Unfortunately, in the absence of informed guides, such unfortunate events will be predicted. This program was unfortunately postponed due to the Corona epidemic, which I hope will provide the infrastructure for holding these training courses in the near future.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that historical monuments, especially world monuments, do not belong to any particular person or body; It does not matter what country, ethnicity or region we visit, we all have a role to play in preserving historical monuments. The most important infrastructural action for the protection of historical monuments, natural resources and the environment is awareness raising, and the people must also participate in this regard; In other words, none of the above can be taken care of by force and a responsible body alone, and the participation of the people is needed.

I hope that with the cooperation of the Radio and Television and the agencies in charge of cultural awareness, we can take big and clear steps towards awareness of the importance of historical monuments.

It is old-fashioned, but it is new to our hearts / it is a souvenir of your dear days.

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