An Approach to Reading Components of Taq Bostan Cultural Landscape

One of the important criteria of registration in the World Heritage List is the cultural landscape, which deals with the preservation and restoration of natural, tangible and intangible cultural elements of historical sites with a holistic and pragmatic approach. The arcs of Taq Bostan have been registered as a national site in the temporary world heritage list, but unfortunately, in recent years, we have seen physical changes in its historical and natural elements. The dissociation between the works and nature causes loss of the original nature of the site and leads to its further destruction. Considering that the cultural landscape is tantamount to interaction between humans and the nature, the historical works of Taq Bostan have turned the site into an element capable of creating cultural landscape. This study has been conducted through the archive, text studies and survey on the site, Taq Bostan. This research has tried to highlight the necessity of a comprehensive look at the protection and restoration of this historical work and seeks to prove the hypothesis that the arches of Taq Bostan are only one work. It is not historical and archeological, but a cultural landscape. The method of this descriptive-analytical research is based on data collected from documentary, library, survey and experience working in the site. Among the questions that are answered in this research; mention can be made of the following: 1. What are the criteria of cultural landscape? 2. What are the elements of Taq Bostan cultural landscape? The result of the research shows; based on the global elements, Taq Bostan has the criteria of a cultural landscape with natural and human components in tangible and intangible forms and has all the effective objective and subjective factors in the formation of the cultural landscape; and contrary to popular belief, Sasanian reliefs are not the only factor in creating this cultural landscape; rather, the components of Taq Bostan’s cultural; s cultural landscape are a combination of natural and cultural modules that are intertwined and inseparable throughout history.