TEHRAN, Iran — In Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, history becomes a warm breeze over hills that hold thousands of years of human stories. Home to some of the country’s oldest heritage sites, the province is also a host to decaying structures, organizational looting and systematic neglect. To see this in vivid color, drive 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the provincial capital Ahvaz to Susa — a city that for millennia played a significant role in the story of human civilization. But as civilizations rise and fall, there is as much to note in their descent as in their pinnacle.

Eight years of war have completely disheveled Susa’s aura. Previous residents have fled, migrants and war refugees from all over Khuzestan have settled in their place, and the city carries a daze that the scorn of its custodians only exasperates. One wonders if this really is the place written about in Sumerian records of southern Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Esther, and the city that was to play a prominent role in both the Elamite and proto-Elamite civilizations.

Roman Ghirshman, a Russian-French archaeologist, was the main specialist on the site between 1951 and 1962. He wrote, “The second millennium found a new national dynasty in Elam, whose kings styled themselves ‘divine messenger, father and king [of Anzan and Susa].' The goddess Shala and her consort Inshushinak were frequently invoked.” Popular legend has it that the site was discovered when the British were surveying the area for oil.

Susa was declared a world heritage site only earlier this year, but little has been done here to honor the status. Year after year, the complex is seeing the consequences of rain, wind and disdain. There is more. Susa was also a significant city after the Achaemenid period (founded in 550 B.C.). Iran’s most noted ancient palace is the one at Persepolis in Fars province, but less is known of Iran’s other hypostyle hall, Apadana, built in Susa by Achaemenid King Darius. Today, almost nothing of Apadana remains but broken rocks and capitals or bases of pillars thrown at random corners. Around this area, anyone can become a looter. Take a shovel and start digging, and you will eventually come across shattered pottery, “some which is thousands of years old,” remarked an official from the Susa Museum to Al-Monitor. “But we have no way of keeping people from taking what they dig,” he added. Some hills are marked with ribbon, indicating future excavations that never arrived, only helping those looking for bounty.