Iran has laid asphalt over Lot 41 at Behesht-e Zahra, the largest cemetery in Tehran, covering a section long associated with people executed in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, satellite images reviewed by news organizations show.
Images from Planet Labs PBC depict a newly paved parking area being placed atop a desert‑like patch of sand and sparse trees where opponents of the early Islamic Republic and others were buried after being executed by shooting or hanging. Iranian officials acknowledged the decision to construct the parking area but did not provide details about those buried at the site.
The area, sometimes referred to by officials and observers as the “scorched section,” has been closely monitored for decades. Reports and imagery indicate the site has experienced state‑sponsored demolition in the past, with grave markers vandalized, overturned and removed. Surveillance cameras have been used to discourage public commemoration and other acts of remembrance at the location.
A United Nations special rapporteur warned in 2024 that Iran’s destruction of graveyards appeared intended to “conceal or erase data that could serve as potential evidence to avoid legal accountability.” The newly observed paving follows that broader pattern cited by the U.N. expert, according to rights monitors and archival reporting.
Behesht-e Zahra is Tehran’s largest cemetery and has served as a burial site for many victims of political violence since the 1979 revolution. Lot 41, in particular, has been identified in historical accounts and by relatives of the deceased as a location where thousands were rapidly interred following mass executions carried out in the months and years after the revolution.
International rights groups and survivors’ families have long sought access to gravesites for mourning, documentation and potential judicial redress. Officials’ recent acknowledgment of the construction project did not include information on whether remains were exhumed, identified or relocated prior to paving.
The alteration of burial grounds adds to longstanding concerns about accountability and the preservation of evidence related to mass executions tied to the early years of the Islamic Republic. Authorities in Tehran have in the past resisted independent inquiries into those events and have restricted public commemoration at sensitive sites.
Local and international organizations that document human rights abuses have repeatedly highlighted the importance of preserving burial sites and records to allow families to locate remains and to support any future legal processes. With the paving of Lot 41 now visible from space, the physical landscape of that part of Behesht-e Zahra has been permanently altered, leaving unanswered questions about the disposition of those buried there and the ability to publicly remember them.