Iran’s holy city of Mashhad joins League of Historical Cities

Mashhad’s mayor, Mohammad Reza Ghalandar, said on Saturday that the city had become the League's 129th member and the 12th Iranian city to join the Japan-based organization.

Ghalandar said that joining the League of Historical Cities will allow Mashhad to expand and promote its religious tourism infrastructure further, especially for pilgrims visiting the city from nine countries in the region, ranging from India to Turkey.

“This will create sustainable revenues for the city of Mashhad,” he said.

Mashhad, located in northeast Iran, has a population of nearly four million. It hosts the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Shia imam. It is a regional hub of tourism that receives nearly 30 million pilgrims per year from Iran and other countries.

The city and its surrounding towns are home to some of the most important historical places of the Islamic and pre-Islamic periods.

Other Iranian cities on the list of the Japanese-based cultural organization include: Isfahan, Shiraz, Bandar Kong, Tabriz, Semnan, Kashan, Yazd, Ardebil, Neyshabour, Masouleh, and Tehran.

The League of Historical Cities was established in 1987 in Japan’s Kyoto. Its manifest says the organization seeks to strengthen cooperation between historical cities around the world to enable them to exchange their experiences on how to preserve and use historical places and monuments.