- Type
- Ruin
- Location
- West Azerbaijan, Iran
- Style
- Sasanian architecture
- Heritage
- UNESCO World Heritage List
- Coordinates
- 36.6047°, 47.2342°
History
On a mound built up by the deposits of a hot spring around a deep lake, the Sasanians raised, probably in the 5th–6th century, one of the three greatest fire sanctuaries of their empire: the temple of Adur Gushnasp, associated with the warrior class and the royal house. The whole site was ringed by an oval stone wall with dozens of towers. Tradition has it that Persian kings came here with gifts after taking the throne. In 624 the sanctuary was plundered by the army of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. In the 1270s the Mongol Ilkhan Abaqa built a summer palace on the ruins, decorated with glazed tiles. The site was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2003.
What to see
A gate in the stone wall opens onto a broad enclosure with a turquoise lake at its centre, its calcium-rich water still welling up from deep underground. Around it lie the foundations and brick vaults of the fire temple, the remains of the Ilkhanid palace halls and stretches of towered wall. About 3 km to the west rises Zendan-e Soleyman, the hollow cone of an extinct spring, where traces of temples nearly three thousand years old were found on the summit.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q115253
Popularity: articles about this site in 50 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).