Kish Island, Iran - It started small - a few babies named after the pre-Islamic heroes Darius or Cyrus, a bit more government money earmarked for preserving ancient sites, advertisers using the image of ruins of Persepolis - founded as an imperial capital 2?500 years ago - to sell everything from salad dressing to motorbikes.

Now comes modern Iran's most audacious salute yet to a past that Islamic fundamentalists would rather forget: a hotel built in the style of Persepolis, all graceful columns, statues of winged bulls with human faces and bas reliefs showing envoys bearing gifts for ancient Achaemenian kings - decorations that violate Islam's ban on graven images.

"The glory of ancient Persia has been revived. It is the rebirth of Persepolis," tourist Hasan Ezzati said after visiting the new Dariush Grand Hotel, built on the Gulf tourist island of Kish at an estimated cost of one trillion rials (about R970-million). The hotel's name reflects the modern Farsi pronunciation of Darius, the ancient king.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution, hard-line clerics opposed any symbol from Iran's pre-Islamic days. Few resources were funnelled to ancient sites, including the palaces and citadels of Persepolis, a UN-designated World Heritage Site 710km south of Tehran.

Iran's ruling clerics had more reason to dislike Persepolis than Iran's other ancient sites. The late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who hosted the rich and famous at a lavish party amid the ruins in 1971 to commemorate 2?500 years of Iran's monarchy, had linked his legitimacy as king to Persepolis and the Achaemenian era.

"The destruction of two ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan by the then extremist Taliban in 2001 reminded me of calls by rigid (Iranian) clerics after the revolution to destroy Persepolis," recalled Kamal Adib, an Iranian businessman.

Leading historian Baqer Choubak said the sheer weight of Iran's history and public opposition persuaded clerics to gradually support the monuments, rather than destroy or neglect them.

"People simply didn't accept that Iran's history began after the advent of Islam. That rigidity has loosened in recent years, though there is still a degree of resistance," Choubak said.

The waning fervour from the 1979 Islamic revolution - and indeed, a disillusionment by many people with the clerical rule over Iran - helped encourage the public interest in the country's ancient history.

The clerical government's initial rejection of Iran's pre-Islamic past faded with the realization that ancient monuments could draw tourists and help develop the country's economy. Fears also eased among the Islamic leaders that the monarchy with its ties to the ancient past would somehow return to rule again.

Now, the clerics are more likely to insist that history since the arrival of Islam in the 7th century should be emphasised, not that pre-Islamic history should be ignored.

The government allocated 40-billion rials to Persepolis this year for restoration work, pollution protection, new facilities for visitors and promotion of the ancient city as a tourist destination. The big jump from last year's allocation of just 500-million rials came after experts warned of irreparable damages to the site unless strong steps were taken.

Rules have been dropped that banned parents from registering such pre-Islamic names for children as Darius or Cyrus, another ancient king. Images of Persepolis and the tomb of Ferdowsi, Iran's ancient epic poet, turn up on T-shirts, salad dressings and other products. State television - though controlled by Islamic hard-liners - shows images of Persepolis and other ancient sites, and filmmakers shoot scenes at such locations.

Opposition has not totally disappeared, though. The ultraconservative Ya Lesarat weekly said President Mohammad Khatami erred by giving his approval to "the un-Islamic appearance of the hotel" by attending its inauguration in April.

Mainland Iran may not be as ready as Kish for a place like the Dariush Grand. The island has become a freewheeling weekend getaway where Iranian men and women can stroll or swim in clothes too revealing for the rest of Iran - and now admire what could be the start of a new trend in architecture.

"I feel I'm regaining a lost identity. Tourists visit ruins of Persepolis in southern Iran but here they see the relic's undamaged modern image," Marzieh Masaebi as she toured the hotel, expected to be open to guests later this month.

In a demonstration of their support for the huge private project owned by Hussein Sabet, an expatriate Iranian billionaire, authorities in Kish have named the square nearest the hotel the same name - after Darius, a king of the Achaemenid dynasty that was established around 500 BC and was the first significant kingdom of ancient Persia.

"We simply can't remove the name of our ancestors because we don't like it," said Mohammad Alavi, who designed the hotel. "It's part of our history. It's Iran's symbol, identity."