TEHRAN, June 10 (Mehr News Agency) -- The celebrated scholar and professor of archeology and sociology Parviz Varjavand died of heart failure on the morning of June 10.

Varjavand was the first culture minister in the provisional government of Mehdi Bazargan which was formed after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Born in 1934 in Tehran, he graduated with an MA from the University of Tehran and also obtained a PhD in the Renovation of Monuments and Classical Architecture of Iran from the University of Sorbonne in France.

He published the first Iranian students' newspaper when he was 16.

Varjavand was active in cultural heritage affairs and he made efforts to register Persepolis, the Choghazanbil Ziggurat and Naqsh-e Jahan complex on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

... Payvand News - 6/10/07 ... --