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 on two separate levels of the tower is regarded as one of its most important features. Both inscriptions are located in ten brick panels located between the ten, right-angled buttresses that break up the cylindrical stem of the tower. The lower inscription sits 8m above ground level, while the upper inscription sits below a ring of corbel brickwork supporting the tower’s steep, conical, brick roof.

The inscription, which is to be read clockwise from right to left and which begins in the bay to the right of the tower’s ground level entrance, has been translated as follows:

In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, this castle (also translated as “high place”) was built by the Amir, Shams al-Ma’ali, the Amir, Son of the Amir, Qābus, son of Wushmgir, who ordered it built during his lifetime in the lunar year 397 and the solar year 375.

The dates correspond to September, 1006 CE, to March, 1007 CE. The use of the solar date, which  is more infrequently used, has been cited as Zoroastrian influences on what is otherwise a predominantly an Islamic monument.

The use in the inscription of the Arabic term, qasr, usually translated as “castle” or “palace” has led to the theory that the tower was intended as a mausoleum housing the remains of Qābus. On the other hand, excavations, laser scans, and photogrammetry surveys have revealed no traces of any burial, and the lack of access to the tower’s top have led to many controversies as to the tower’s intended function. 

Adding to the controversy is a legend told by an Arabic historian, named al-Jannabi, that Qābus was encased in a glass or crystal coffin and hung by chains from the top of the tower’s interior. The legend has persisted, although it has no basis in fact. No remains of such a burial have been found at the tower’s top where the interior is shown to follow closely the exterior, conical roof. There is also no evidence of an inner, hemispherical dome, leading some to claim that the tower has a “conical dome.” The tower’s interior also remains a total void with unbroken brickwork from top to bottom except for the ground level entrance and a small, arched roof window facing east.

Although the Gonbad-e Qābus is seen as the prototype of a series of so-called tomb towers located in Iran and Anatolia, much about the tower remains unique. It is seen as having few, if any precursors, and remains unique for its exceptional height and for apparently not being intended as a funerary monument. One theory as to its possible function is that it was intended primarily to glorify the emir building it as evidenced by the duplication of the inscription, its being built into the very brick fabric of the tower, and its specificity in giving the name of Qābus and the two dates.

Other theories claim that it was intended as a landmark along ancient trade routes, as proclaiming Islam as the dominant religion in a region where Zoroastrianism still prevailed, and as having been inspired by the circular, conically roofed tents of the Central Asian nomads living in the surrounding area. It is also notable for its use of sophisticated proportions and mathematics as seen in its design, leading to its frequently being called a work of human genius.

Unfortunately, its out-of-the-way location makes such a remarkably important ancient, Persian monument difficult to visit, and much more needs to be done to impress upon it infrequent visitors its true importance as a world class structure within the annals of world architecture.

Much more very detailed information prepared by ICHHTO for the tower’s UNESCO Heritage Site designation can be found in a downloadable PDF document on the internet at: https://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/1398.pdf.

David J. Patten, Saint Petersburg, FL