World Heritage Sites Hit in Airstrikes on Iran

Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Heritage released photos and videos showing serious damage to several of Isfahan’s most cherished sites. The Ali Qapu Palace and the Chehel Sotoun palace and garden, dating to the 17th‑century Safavid dynasty, sustained serious harm.

Blast waves also sent the turquoise tiles of the Jameh Mosque crashing to the ground, with a massive plume of smoke rising from behind the mosque. A week earlier the Golestan Palace in Tehran was badly damaged during an attack on a police station in downtown Tehran.

The 14th‑century palace, which became the seat of the Qajar dynasty, saw its famed hall of mirrors shattered and its symmetrical garden covered in debris. UNESCO said it had been able to verify damage at several World Heritage sites in Iran, including the Golestan Palace; the Chehel Sotoun pavilion of the Persian Garden, the Masjed‑e Jame of Isfahan, and buildings near the buffer zone of the prehistoric Khorramabad Valley.

Iran, Isfahan, Tehran

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