Gonbad-e Qâbus

The Gonbad-e Qābus, meaning “Dome of Qābus,” was visited on Friday, 16 May 2014, on a three-day extension of a guided tour of Iran. It had been the subject of an art history master’s degree thesis in 1966, so there was a long term wish to visit what is said to be Earth’s tallest tower of unglazed, fired brick and one the the earliest Iranian monuments bearing its date and the name of the Ziyarid dynasty emir responsible for its construction.

The tower was first designated a protected monument under Iran’s Law for Protection of National Heritage in 1930. In 1975 it was cited by the Iranian Cultural, Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) as number 1097. In 2012, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the number, 1398.

Today, the tower sits off center atop an artificial hill measuring 10m in height in the center of the city of Gonbad-e Kāvus, located in Golestan province in northeastern Iran near the Turkmenistan border to the north and the Caspian Sea to the west. Originally the tower stood 3km from the ancient Ziyarid dynasty capital city of Gurgan which was destroyed in the 14th-15th centuries CE. Sitting in a park in the city which has grown up around it largely since the Revolution, the monument remains as the only remanent of the dynasty that one ruled most of northeastern Iran.

The inscription in Kufic style Arabic, built into the brick fabric of the tower and duplicated …

A lot has been said in the below review that I can't really add much. The site is remote, even with he nearby forests/parks probably WHS soon, as well the “on paper” great wall of Gorgan to visit.

I found a parking lot right at the site which acts as a fairground in summer. It also taught me that parking on the side of the road you need to be careful of the large gaps between road and side that act as...drainage? It was rainy but nothing compared to the snowy road from the south that had many people grabbing their snow chains quickly. So I made made it to the tower and looks pretty impressive but woah there is so little to see. I find myself reviewing bad sites more often but I suppose there are so many reviews for the “good” places. I am actually dishing out more stars than what is worth but I like towers.

Indeed you get a leaflet about the site, walk up the ramp and read a couple of panels. Inside, I was so excited, is absolutely nothing! Well, air, and darkness, and a ceiling somewhere up there. If not for that I would probably be ok taking a picture from just outside the entrance like everyone else! So I spend a few more minutes walking around the tower, read the labs again, took more pictures and goodbye tower. I think I spent more time writing the review.

As I …

A quick look at the map of Iran will indicate why Gonbad-e Qabus might not yet have been reviewed on this web site and indeed had only 5 recorded visits prior to ours! It is a long way off the route for visiting Iran’s other WHS! Which was a problem for us, as I had set myself the objective of visiting all of Iran’s WHS, other than Shahr-i Sokhta. So I swallowed hard and added 2 days to the end of our circular trip by car after taking in the other 17 – a distance from Tehran of over 500 kms each way. Over 1000 kms just to see a brick “tower”!??

Well – was it worth it? In purely objective terms I guess the answer must be “no” – even for that extra tick! But the trip contained enough other “interests” by taking us to a “new” area of Iran to make it just about worthwhile. Our outward journey took us past 5620m Mt Damavand and down to the Caspian coast at 24m below sea level! Gonbad itself is approached across a plain of wheat fields which predominate in this area SE of the Caspian. To the south, the hazy Elburz mountains create an amazing climatic change – across them, less than 100kms as the crow flies, lies largely empty “desert” Iran. On this side, the mountain slopes are forested and farmers tend rice paddy fields which look as if they could be in SE Asia. The next …