Cultural Landscape and Rural Development
Mohsen Sartipipour

Abstract
Villages are the first permanent human settlements in human life history. In territories with ancient civilizations, there are many evidences indicating the relationship between human and physical environment, while a considerable portion of them are found in rural areas. From a holistic viewpoint towards cultural heritage, such monuments do belong not only to some certain regions solely, but to all human communities. Conservation and restoration of these monuments both can allow the dialogue of civilizations and can be an important factor for development of countries, especially developing nations. Restoration of this heritage and determining its role can be used as an approach to accelerate rural development. History of Iran also indicates thousands of years of civilization. Identification, conservation and restoration of rural cultural landscape, while helping to protect the national-historical capitals of countries can provide new physical environment with sustainability principles inherited from past by discovery of secrets and symbols behind it. This is an effective factor in prosperity and growth of rural areas.

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