- Type
- Ruin
- Style
- Safavid architecture
- Heritage
- part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site (an old town or a valley, for example)
- Coordinates
- 36.4447°, 50.5861°
History
Tradition holds that the fortress on a rocky ridge in the Alamut valley, in the Alborz mountains north of Qazvin, was built in the 9th century by local rulers of Daylam. In 1090 it was seized by Hasan-i Sabbah, who made it the centre of the Nizari state, a branch of the Ismailis known in Europe as the Assassins. For more than 150 years Alamut was the seat of their leaders, who directed a network of mountain castles in Iran and Syria, and it was famed for its rich library. In 1256, after the last imam, Rukn al-Din Khurshah, surrendered to Hulagu's Mongols, Alamut too gave in. The historian Ata-Malik Juvayni went through the library, saved some works and had the rest burned, and the fortress was demolished.
What to see
From the village of Gazor Khan a steep path and stairway climb to the top of the rock. On the ridge you can see fragments of walls, traces of rooms and rock-cut cisterns and channels that stored water against a siege. The setting is the real reward: the ruins look out over the whole Alamut valley with its fields and villages and the snowy peaks of the Alborz.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q4706020
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