be of interest to someone

[Flyby]

i can't understand this sentence in bold grammatically.

[ Therefore, such zones are of interest to archaeologists, as they provide clues to the habitat of early human beings.]


can i just say that such zones are interesting to archaeologists?
i get confused in understanding the exact meaning of this sentence because of the word 'of '..

[Barb_D]

I agree that:
This is of interest to me.
This is interesting to me.
I find this interesting.

Are all roughly the same.

You can replace the original "of interest to" with "is interesting to" and the meaning is not change much. The only difference to me is that "interesting" is somehow more personal/internal, while "of interest to" sound more work-related/external. (Estate planning may be of interest to me in my profession, but I may not find it interesting as an individual.)