TEHRAN -- A new conservation campaign has begun at Shapur Cave in the Tang-e Chogan gorge of Fars, southern Iran, focusing on the monumental statue of the Sasanian king Shapur I. 
The first phase of the project has been allocated a budget of 2 billion Iranian tomans from oil-revenue funds and is expected to take approximately three months, according to Afshin Ebrahimi, director of the Sasanian Archaeological Landscape of Fars. The wider program is projected to continue for roughly two and a half years. 
The intervention concerns one of the most distinctive surviving sculptures of the Sasanian period. UNESCO identifies Shapur Cave as one of the eight component sites of the Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2018. 
The wider property encompasses archaeological remains at Firuzabad, Bishapur and Sarvestan and documents the architectural and artistic culture of the Sasanian Empire in Fars. 
Inside the cave, the statue stands on a terrace near the entrance. Encyclopaedia Iranica records its height at approximately 6.70m, with shoulders more than 2m across. 
Rather than being assembled from quarried blocks, the figure was carved from a large stalagmite formed in situ, making the relationship between sculpture and cave geology an essential part of its material history. Iranica describes it as the most impressive surviving sculpture of the Sasanian period. 
The first phase of the new project is deliberately diagnostic. According to Ebrahimi, conservation teams will begin with detailed scientific documentation of the statue using close- and long-range photogrammetry, drones and cameras. 
The resulting digital and photographic record will form the basis for subsequent conservation planning. The project will then introduce a technical and protective scaffold, approximately 4m by 4m and 7m high, allowing conservators safe access to different parts of the sculpture.
A transparent polycarbonate barrier