INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Austria, are the first group of foreign tourists visiting the region since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started on March 21),
Mehr quoted Mahmoud Ba-Aqideh as saying.Khaf was considered a major tourism destination before the outbreak of the coronavirus by domestic
and foreign travelers, but the pandemic caused the decline of its tourism industry, the official added.Having been vaccinated and the
coronavirus outbreak successfully controlled, domestic tourists have returned to the region, he noted.Currently, the arrival of the first
group of European tourists could promise a resurgence of tourism in the region, he mentioned.Khaf is known for its historical Asbads
(vertical windmills), along with other tourist attractions.ran seeks UNESCO recognition for arrays of its ancient windmills that can be
found in the provinces of Sistan-Baluchestan, South Khorasan, and Khorasan Razavi.UNESCO says Asbad is a smart technique to grind grains, a
technique that goes back to ancient times when the people living in the eastern parts of Iran, in an attempt to adapt themselves to nature
and transform environmental obstacles into opportunities, managed to invent it.Constructed of clay, wood, and straw, those ancient gears
which are inherited from preceding generations, are perched on a cliff overlooking the village, milling grain for centuries.Technically
speaking, unlike European windmills, the Persian design is powered by blades arrayed on a vertical axis in which the energy of wind is
place due to strong and continuous 120-day winds, which annually sweep through the east and southeast of the Iranian Plateau from late May
to late September.According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the earliest known references to windmills are to a Persian millwright in 644 CE
and windmills in Seistan [Sistan], Iran, in 915 CE
In the early second millennium, some Eastern and Western states acquired the technology of making mills from Persia, though the prototype
design constantly underwent amendments over time.ABU/MG
