NCRI – Iran’s ancient underground city of Nooshabad has been sealed off and closed to the public because extremist officials do not want it visited by ‘mixed gender’ tourist groups.
Up to 1,000 tourists a day usually visit the 1,500-year-old site around 8km north of Kashan in the central Iranian desert.
But state security forces expelled visitors on Monday (May 5) and locked the gates on the orders of a public prosecutor.
A local official told the state-run Mehr news agency: “It seems that based on a directive, the entrance of mixed gender tourists groups to the historical places has been forbidden.
“The state security forces closed and locked the gates to this region on the orders of the Public Prosecutor yesterday, via a phone call.
“It is very strange that this beautiful underground city is being closed at a time when around 700 to 1000 tourists travel here every day.”
Nooshabad is a sprawling underground complex of labyrinthine corridors, rooms and wells covering thousands of square metres and up to 14 metres below ground. It dates back to the pre-Islamic era and was mainly used for sheltering and defense against enemies.
