Mahallat Plans Flower Festival

Tehran, Aug 7, IRNA - A flower and plant festival will be held in Mahallat, Markazi province, in September. Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, the head of Markazi Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department, said the festival will be held with the aim of attracting more tourists. “Mahallat is the biggest hub of plants and ornamental flowers in Iran,” he said. “If we achieve our goals of attracting more tourists by holding the festival annually, we can boost flower export from the region,” Thursdayˈs edition of ˈIran Dailyˈ quoted Hosseini as saying. The official said the area under the cultivation of decorative flowers and plants in Markazi province is about 1,084 hectares. “Nearly 172 million units of flowers and plants are produced in Mahallat annually, 6 million of which are exported to other provinces and countries,” he said. Hosseini noted that some flowers, which are native to the country, include roses, tulips, fritillaria, poppy and pittosporum. He added that Iranians esteem flowers, as they have had a custom of gifting flowers on numerous occasions since ancient times. Hosseini noted that a grape festival also will be held in Hazaveh Village during Oct. 19-21. Several programs are organized during the festival, including the sale of grapes and agricultural products, live music performances, as well as performance of traditional plays. Mahallat has a cold climate and strong winds during spring and summer. In ancient times, it was an important region that had a large population of Zoroastrians. There are remains of Hellenistic architecture from Alexander the Great’s time in Mahallat as well as a fire temple’s ruins. The city is famous for a warm water spring flowing from mountains in the north into the plain areas of the south used for agriculture as well as urban water supply./end