06
Orumieh Tourism Complex
Dec. 29, 2009
A huge project is underway in Bari complex near Orumieh Lake to promote
tourism in the region. Some 170 million rials have been earmarked for the
project spread over 10,000 square meters.
Iranica
In Case You Missed
World’s Friendliest Countries
According to the latest survey conducted by HSBC Bank,
Bahrain, Canada, Australia Thailand and Malaysia are the top
five friendliest countries.
The Middle East has long had a reputation for being one of
the world’s perennial trouble spots. But for expatriates, the tiny
Persian Gulf country Bahrain ranks as one of the most welcoming places to work, MSN reported.
That’s the surprising result of a new survey of 3,100 expatri-
ates conducted by HSBC Bank. Bahrain ranked first in one key
measure of how easy it is for expatriates to set up a new life for
their families. It received high marks from expats who like the
country’s easy access to modern healthcare, decent and affordable housing, and network of social groups that expatriates can
join.
Canada, which ranked first in a similar survey last year, fell
to second place on HSBC’s integration score, which measures
how easily foreigners and their families can settle into a new
country.
Australia, Thailand and Malaysia rounded out the top five.
Foreign workers in these countries found it easy to make local friends and said they enjoyed a higher quality of life than in
their native countries.
Expat Explorer survey was conducted between February and
April 2009. Survey respondents were from the US, Europe and
elsewhere, and lived in more than two dozen countries and on
four continents. They ranked their new homes based on 23 factors, including food, entertainment, healthcare, commute and
education.
Of those measures, HSBC selected eight to create its socalled “integration score”, a snapshot of which countries are
most welcoming to expats.
It is possible that Bahrain’s first-place finish is a fluke. Only
31 expats working in Bahrain participated in the survey against
more than 450 respondents from the United Kingdom. Bahrain
ranked as the best country to join local community groups and
coordinate healthcare. Respondents found it less easy to make
local friends and learn the languages (Arabic, Farsi and Urdu),
but the country ranked in the top five when it came to finding a
home, setting up finances, and finding good schools.
UAE and the United Kingdom received some of the poorest
scores on the integration scale. Expats in the UAE reported finding it difficult to join local community groups; only 39 percent
of respondents made local friends compared to 76 percent of respondents living in other countries. Foreign workers in England
complained about the challenges of finding affordable housing.
Europe Toughens
Air Travel Security
European countries have decided to enhance security checks
at airports in the wake of an alleged terror attack aboard a US
airliner that took off from the Netherlands.
Officials in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands are stepping up safety efforts at their airports after flight security was disrupted onboard a Delta Airlines jetliner by a Nigerian
national. He allegedly sought to blow up the passenger plane en
route to Detroit, in the US, from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands,
Reuters reported.
Authorities made the decision following a formal request from
the US Department of Transportation to airports worldwide for
tougher security measures.
British Airports Authority (BAA) issued a statement on Saturday, saying, “Passengers travelling to the United States should
expect their airline to carry out additional security checks prior to
boarding.”
A spokesperson for Paris airports has acknowledged the latest
aviation security decision telling reporters, “We received instructions from the US Federal Transit Administration last night and it’s
up to the individual airlines to put them in place.
“The instructions were sent to all the countries and apply to all
airlines travelling to the US,” Reuters quoted the unnamed official.
Germany’s Interior Ministry has also announced plans to review
flight security measures. “We are at the moment reviewing whether
we will selectively raise our standards. We are in close contact with
Dutch security authorities,” an interior ministry official said.
Silk Road Documentation
Underway
I
ran is currently documenting information related to
the Silk Road for registering the ancient trade route
passing through the country on UNESCO’s World
Heritage List.
The Research Center of Iran’s Cultural Heritage,
Handicrafts and Tourism Organization launched a plan in
2008 to identify ancient sites located along the Silk Road
for registration on the list, an expert of the center, Razieh
Ta’assob, told the Persian service of IRNA.
“Iran has urged Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and
Turkey, which are also located on the route, to collaborate
in the registration process, but it has not yet received a
response,” she said.
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Turkmenistan have teamed up on a plan spearheaded by
China to register their portion of the Silk Road on the list.
Ta’assob said China plans to register the road on the list
without regarding other countries located on the route, but
UNESCO’s World Heritage Center rejected the country’s
application, because a large part of the Silk Road passes
through Iran.
“Italy is also one of the countries linked with the Silk
Road. However, no representative from the country has
participated in the international sessions held to discuss
its registration,” she said.
According the Encarta, the Silk Road was the most
important trade route linking China, Central Asia, Persia,
West Asia and Europe.
A 19th-century German scholar named the network of
trails the Silk Road for the precious Chinese cloth that
was originally the most valuable and abundant commodity transported on it.
Although historians traditionally date the origin of the
Silk Road to 2nd century BC, a trickle of goods--mainly
jades, bronzes and silks--were conveyed across it as early
as 1000 BC.
Commerce persisted on the Silk Road until oceanborne trade surpassed and superseded trade on the land
route in the late 15th and early 16th centuries AD.
Call for Returning Iranian Relics
Iran is continuing efforts to take back its historical relics from Britain, Egypt and the US.
Announcing this, the head of Iran’s
Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Hamid Baqaei, told
CHTN that he has demanded the return of
Achaemenid soldiers’ head from its own-
ers in Paris.
“Its owners offered to pay for the historical object, but we refused,” he said.
The ICHHTO chief said the head of
Achaemenid soldier was illegally transferred out of the country and his organization has spent a lot to seek its return.
“We are ready to pay millions of dollars to prove we are right,” he said.
Baqaei said anyone who buys the relic
will be sued and Iran will not end its claim
over the ownership of the relic.
“The United States Department of Justice has voted in favor of Iran’s right over
the Achaemenid tablets that are currently
in the US, but Zionist lobbies are interfering in their decisions,” he said.
Asked about the Achaemenid soldiers
recently unearthed in Egypt, Baqaei said
they belong to Iran and the authenticity of
this discovery has been proved.
Daqyanous a Vital Seljuk City
portant it was during the Seljuk era.
Choubak noted that there is no scientific basis for
naming the site Daqyanous, as people used the name
because of its unknown historicity.
About 400 square meters of an area that appear to
be that of a mosque have been unearthed during previous phases of excavation.
The city covers 12 square kilometers, 2,000 square
meters of which have been studied previously by archeologists.
Experts believe 100 years will be required to completely excavate the site.
Daqyanous was one of Iran’s trading and economic
poles, having connections with eastern countries.
Marco Polo, the world famous Venetian traveler,
also refers to Decius in his travelogue as a large and
glorious city.
Recent excavations at the historical site of Daqyanous
(Decius) near Jiroft in Kerman province show it was a
heavily populated and important city.
Hamideh Choubak, the head of the excavation team,
presented a report about the result.
‘’Archeological excavation reveals that the city was
a large population center with more than a hundred
passages and squares,’’ she said.
Decius dates back to the Seljuk dynasty and is one
of Iran’s largest cities during the Islamic era, CHTN
reported.
According to Choubak, main routes of the city paved
with flagstones and flanked by public buildings have
been discovered.
The excavations reveal the city had more than 100
quarters and 100 squares, which show how vast and
economically, politically, socially and culturally im-
Experts Examine Burnt City Eyeball
An official said special measures will be taken to preserve the Burnt City artificial eyeball.
Director of archeological research center in Burnt
City, Mansour Sajjadi, added that this artificial eyeball is made of natural tar mixed with animal fat.
The eyeball found in grave number 6705 of Burnt
City’s cemetery is a spherical object placed inside the
left eye socket of a 28-32-year-old woman, CHTN reported.
“Initial anthropological studies on the skull revealed an abscess under the eyebrow and inside the
left eye socket of this woman,’’ he said.
Even the most delicate eye capillaries were drawn
on this eyeball using golden wires with a thickness
of less than half a millimeter. The pupil of the eye is
placed at the center of the eyeball and there are parallel lines around the pupil shaped like a diamond.
Sajjadi stressed that the archeological research
center has decided to preserve it.
Very small spots of white color can be seen on the
eye. It is a high possibility that the whole sclera was
covered by this white color that faded gradually.
“Two holes were also created on the sides of this
eyeball to hold it in the eye and it seem that the leather bag found inside a straw basket in the grave must
have been a kind of eye glass holder which was used
for holding the artificial eyeball, for example, while
sleeping,” he said.
General Cao Cao Tomb Found
Chinese archeologists have unearthed a large thirdcentury tomb, which they say could be that of Cao
Cao, the legendary politician and general famous
throughout East Asia for his Machiavellian tactics.
The tomb, discovered in Xigaoxue Village near
the ancient Chinese city of Anyang, Henan province, has an epitaph and inscription that appear to
refer to Cao Cao, Central China Television said on
Sunday, Reuters reported.
A Chinese proverb, “speak of Cao Cao and he appears,” is the equivalent of “speak of the devil” in
English.
Cao Cao was the final chancellor of the Eastern
Han dynasty, who went on to form his own state
during the political turmoil of the Three Kingdoms
period. He died in 220 AD in Luoyang, the capital
of the Eastern Han dynasty, and was posthumously
named Emperor of the Wei state that he founded.
In Chinese lore, a number of anecdotes tell of
Cao Cao’s ruthlessness, cunning, and military and
political acumen.
The tomb contains the body of a man in his 60s,
corresponding to Cao Cao’s age at his death, and
two women.