Some eight million people paid visit to heritage museums and historical sites across Iran during the two-week New Year (Noruz) holidays, which ended on April 2.

A total of 7.825 million people toured museums and other sites which have entry fees and are affiliated with the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Mehr quoted Mohammadreza Kargar, the director of CHHTO museums and historical properties, as saying on Saturday.

The figure shows a 15 percent growth year on year, he said, adding that Fars province came first for having the highest number of museumgoers.

The Louvre exhibit in Tehran also made a record high as it hosted some 15,600 visitors in a single day, the official added.

The Louvre show will be running through June 8 at the National Museum of Iran. It’s the first large-scale exhibition by a major Western museum in the country.

“A total of 104,047 people explored the exhibit from March 5 to April 2, which is a stunning figure ….. we had estimated to have some 100,000 visitors over the course of three months, while some 60 days is still remained,” Jebreil Nokandeh, the museum’s director, said last week / Tehran times /