shiroyeh

Seen loads of articles in the past regarding the project... basically it is an eye saw in Esfahans skyline and UNESCO is forcing them to reduce its height lol

Old Article on the controversial project:

Iran: Height of Jahan Nama Tower in Isfahan to be reduced to meet UNESCO's demands

Tehran, Dec 26, IRNA-Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said on Monday that the government authorized to reduce height of Jahan Nama Tower in Isfahan to meet criteria of UNESCO to register Naqsh-e Jahan historical Square as the world cultural heritage.



He said in his weekly briefing to media that the government has decided to comply with criteria of UNESCO for registering and preserving global status of Naqsh-e Jahan Square.

Iran Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) has applied for registering Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan with UNESCO, but, UNESCO gave until February 2006 to reduce height of Jahan Nama Tower under construction on neighborhood of Naqsh-e Jahan.



UNESCO regarded height of the newly built high-rise tower as impediment to registering Naqsh-e Jahan Square on its vicinity....



SOURCE: http://www.payvand.com/news/05/dec/1202.html

shiroyeh

Jahan-Nama Tower will collapse if modification continues, warn experts
TEHRAN, June 23 (MNA) -- The experts in charge of the modification of the Jahan-Nama Tower in central capital Isfahan have warned if the work continues, the tower will totally collapse.

The UNESCO had threatened to add Isfahan’s Naqsh-e Jahan Square to its List of World Heritage in Danger in case the modification of the controversial 56-meter tower did not begin before last February.

Jahan-Nama Tower, west of the square, still spoils the horizontal view of the square, whose monuments were registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.

“So far, a roof of the tower with all related installations has been removed, but we have encountered pendulum-like concrete columns that support the lower stories. If the columns are detached, the tower will lose its balance and will entirely fall,” the tower modification director Reza Dowlatyar told the Persian Service of CHN on Thursday.

“The fall of the tower could be very dangerous and will certainly cause irreparable damages and casualties,” warned the director adding, “So the modification process has come to a standstill to allow a team of experts to look for a solution to the case.

“If the team finds a solution, the modification will be carried out in a month.”

The modification started in late October 2005 and the UNESCO announced that the height of the tower at its eastern side should be reduced by 12 meters and the western side by 24.48 meters.

During his last May visit to Isfahan, the UNESCO World Heritage Center director Francesco Bandarin expressed his satisfaction with the modification process, arguing that the case can be used as a model for safeguarding the world heritage sites in similar situations.

END

SOURCE: http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetai...?NewsID=343523

shiroyeh

Reduction of Jahan Nama Shows a Satisfactory Trend



Concurrent with the 30th session of
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee,
which has started its work since
yesterday in Lithuania, the first phase
of reducing the height of Jahan Nama
tower in Isfahan was completed.

Tehran, 9 July 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- Concurrent with the 30th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, which has started its work since yesterday, 8th of July, in Lithuania and will run to 16th of July, the first phase of reducing the height of Jahan Nama tower has been completed. According to Reza Dolatyar, director of Jahan Nama Project for lowering its height, during the first phase, the height of Jahan Nama has been reduced one meter more than what was expected.

In addition to deciding on 38 nominated sites which have been presented to UNESCO by different countries to be inscribed in its World Heritage List, the Committee will also revise 34 sites which are currently in the list of Endangered World Heritage Sites. These are sites that face serious threats for different reasons such as pollution, pillaging, war, poorly managed tourism, poaching, etc.

Naqshe-Jahan Square is one of the endangered historical sites in Iran, which its condition will be carefully studied by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee in its 30th session.

“It was expected that by removing two ceilings from the tower and during the first phase of lowering the height of Jahan Nama, the height of the tower be reduced up to 7 meters. However, removing the second ceiling required that we also destroy another part of the remaining sections; thus with the approval of our advisor we decided to remove another one meter. The achieved progress is quite visible from the street for the people passing nearby. This process has just finished and the workers are collecting the debris,” said Dolatyar.

Two months ago, UNESCO’s Director of World Heritage Center, Francesco Bandarin, made a visit to Iran to examine and discuss a number of issues regarding some cultural heritage sites in the country that are in danger due to development project. During his stay, he particularly visited the Jahan Nama Tower in Isfahan to see the process of lowering its height. Bandarin expressed his satisfaction about the cooperation of Iran in this respect after he observed the positive measures taken by the Iranian officials to lower the height of the building. In his visit, Bandarin suggested that the only way Iran has if it wants to stop the world heritage site of Naqsh-e Jahan Square from going the list of UNESCO’s Endangered World Heritage Sites is to reduce the height of Jahan Nama tower.

Naqsh-e Jahan is a historical city square in Isfahan which was registered as a World Heritage Site in 1979 at UNESCO’s conference in Egypt. However, recent construction of Jahan Nama, a 48-meter high tower in its vicinity, which has intruded its cultural landscape, has resulted in some debates and struggles on putting Naqsh-e Jahan is the UNESCO list of “endangered Heritage”.

UNIESCO’s conference in Lithuania which is currently holding aims at discussing the conditions of a number endangered heritage sites, among which Naqsh-e Jahan and the Bam Citadel from Iran will be given a special focus.

Unlike Naqsh-e Jahan which has luckily not yet been inscribed in the Endangered Heritage List, Bam Citadel was inscribed in the List in 2004. Francesco Bandarin and some other UNESCO experts believe that the 2000-year-old Bam Citadel still does not have a proper condition to be excluded from the list of Endangered World Heritage Sites. This is while Eskandar Mokhtari, head of Bam Citadel Salvation Project, believes such decision which suggests Bam Citadel must still be in the said list is in fact in favor of the Citadel because it will receive more financial and expert support from UNESCO until it reaches to a more stable condition. “In his visit to Iran, Bandarin announced that Bam Citadel should still remain in the list of endangered World Heritage Sites,” said Mokhtari to CHN.

Bam Citadel in Kerman province is the biggest earthen construction in the world which was reduced to rubble due to a sever earthquake that struck the region in 2003. More than 80 percent of this 2000-year-old monument was completely destroyed by the earthquake.

The registration of Bam Citadel on the World Heritage List at the 28th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee in China which happened shortly after the earthquake was a giant step toward renovation of this historical site.

SOURCE: http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6488

shiroyeh

Jahan Nama has 7 Months to Come to the Expected Level


A 7-month deadline was set by
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee
for reducing the height of Jahan Nama
Tower. The authorities of the project
have promised to finish it by February.

Tehran, 12 July 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- During the 30th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee which has started its work in Lithuania since 8th of July and will run to 16th of July, the Committee has finally announced its decision on the situation of Naqsh-e Jahan Square in city of Isfahan which was nearly going to be placed in list of Endangered World Heritage Sites due to construction of the 48-meter-high tower of Jahan Nama which has intruded the cultural landscape of Naqsh-e Jahan square.

On its Tuesday session, the Committee appreciated Iran’s attempt in reducing the height of Jahan Nama tower and announced that Iran has taken an important step towards saving the cultural landscape of Naqsh-e Jahan Square by starting the process of reduction of Jahan Nama tower. However, it seems the Committee was not fully satisfied with the process of lowering and said that the height of the tower has not been reduced to the expected level. The Committee said that the eastern part of the tower must be lowered 12 meters and the western part has to be reduced 24 meters. Therefore, the Committee determined a 7-month deadline for Iran to finish the project

Based on the latest news, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has asked Iran to submit the record about the trend of reducing of the tower to this Committee by February 2007 to revise the case on the 31st session of the Committee which will be held next year.

Now it seems that by announcing this decision, the only way Iran has to save Naqsh-e Jahan Saqure and prevent it from being removed from the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites is to fulfill its commitments as it has promised to UNESCO and finish the project of lowering the Jahan Nama Tower during this determined period, otherwise it will be listed in Endangered World Heritage Sites. On the other hand, Iranian Cabinet Ministers allocated a 500,000 US dollar budget to the project of reducing Jahan Nama Tower, and the authorities of Jahan Nama tower have promised to lower its height by February 2007.

“At present, the first phase of shortening the height of Jahan Nama Tower has finished and we are waiting to receive the plan to start the second phase. Anyway, the reduction of Jahan Nama Tower will be completed by February 1st, 2007 for sure,” said Reza Dolatyar, the person in charge of lowering the height of Jahan Nama Tower.

Naqsh-e Jahan is a historical city square in Isfahan which was registered as a World Heritage Site in 1979 at UNESCO’s conference in Egypt. However, recent construction of Jahan Nama, a 48-meter high tower in its vicinity, which has intruded its cultural landscape, has resulted in some debates and struggles on putting Naqsh-e Jahan is the UNESCO list of “Endangered Heritage”. Now Iran has only seven months left to bring the height of the tower to the expected level or else, the Naqsh-e Jahan Square would be placed in UNESCO’s List of Endangered Heritage.

RWC-04

it's very historical city..