The Mehrooban Tappeh, the remains of the ancient port and city of Mehrooban (mehrūbān) in the Persian Gulf have been completely destroyed.
Mehrooban Tappeh (archaeological mound) also known as Tal-e Emāmzādeh is located 24km north of the Port of Daylam in Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran.
The ancient site was dated to the fourth Iranian dynasty, the Sassanid (224-651 CE), and registered on the Iranian National Heritage list during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi.
According to locals of nearby Shah Abdollah Village the original name of the port was Māhrūyān (Moon Faces, an expression in Persian meaning ‘beautiful’).
The destruction was carried out by an unnamed military organisation belonging to the Islamic republic, possibly one of the organs of the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guards Navy to facilitate the construction of a new dock between the Ports of Hendijan and Daylam in the Persian Gulf.
Despite being one of the major ports during the Sassanid dynasty, no archaeological research was ever carried out at the ancient site. With this destruction, all the secrets and knowledge of the port in ancient times is now lost forever.
Last month the same unnamed military organisation also destroyed the remains of a manor house known as Filiyeh Palace dated to the Qajar period. Filliyeh Palace was constructed in a mixture of Qajar and Sassanid style, by Isfahani and Shirazi architects in 1917.
The house was residence and principal workplace of the notorious British protégé known as Sheikh Khazal. Khazal was instructed by Whitehall to claim the independency of Khuzestan province from Iran, in order for Britain to gain control over Iranian oil and cut off the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) to pay royalties to Tehran.
In November 1924 Reza Shah Pahlavi arrested Khazal and later was executed for treason. Consequently, the British were forced to leave Iran in March 1925 and Reza Shah completed the unification of Iran and ensured that Iranians would get all the APOC royalties. Dr Mohammad Mosadeq, however, in 1951 completed Reza Shah’s work and nationalised Iranian oil and ended British control over Iranian oil.
Source: Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies [December 01, 2010]