“Measuring 33 meters in length and eight meters in width, the cruise boat is being made by private investors… and it is some 30 percent complete,” provincial tourism chief Mohammad-Hossein Arastouzadeh said on Monday.

“Maritime tourism is one of the most important tourism potentials in Bushehr and it can guarantee employment in the province, so that 13 people have been directly employed for the construction of this vessel.”

Maritime trade, shipping and shipbuilding have long been practiced in Iran. There have been many small or big shipyards across the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf. Entering a shipyard is like stepping back into the ancient times, with some local artisans working on gigantic timbers to shape a reliable vessel.

Such expertise of the Iranian shipbuilders was registered on UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2011 under the tile “Traditional skills of building and sailing Iranian Lenj boats in the Persian Gulf.”