The history of wall paintings goes back to the cave age in Iran. The oldest mural paintings date back to the Neolithic era — about 8,000 BCE — examples of which have been found in ‘Dousheh Cave’ and ‘Mirmelas Valley’ in Kuhdasht, Lorestan province. After the advent of Islam, the motif of paintings underwent significant changes to reflect Islamic values such that Safavid and Qajar eras witnessed the flourishing of mural paintings. Besides wall paintings, Iran is an important place for architectural and archaeological studies, especially for its wealth of earthen architecture. There are thousands of valuable historic monuments, including houses, mosques, palaces, and bazaars. Iranian cultural heritage is at risk due to several factors including climatic factors, biological mechanisms, natural disasters especially earthquakes and floods that are major elements of destruction. Restoration of these historical monuments and mural paintings is a matter of great importance. Ali Mokhtarian in his series of restoration books entitled The ‘Restoration of Wall Paintings’ and ‘Restoration of Historical Monuments’ focuses on different techniques in saving historical wall paintings and monuments in Iran.

I created the same layout for the book cover of this collection. To design the cover of the first book, I used a photograph of one of the wall paintings, along with the title of the book in farsi font while using Iranian motif on the back and ochre color that has been identified as a dominant color in frescos created during the Qajar era. For the second book, I used the photograph of one of the historic mosques in Iran. Title is occupying the same place with the same font as the first one. I used an Islamic motif on the back along with the blue color for the background that is more prevalent in the monuments by Safavid artists.