🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Istakhr
Istakhr (Middle Persian romanized: Stakhr, Persian: استخر, romanized: Estakhr) was an ancient city in Fars province, 5 kilometres (3 mi) north of Persepolis in southwestern Iran.
Search places, or jump to a section
346 places in the atlas, 39 of them inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Istakhr (Middle Persian romanized: Stakhr, Persian: استخر, romanized: Estakhr) was an ancient city in Fars province, 5 kilometres (3 mi) north of Persepolis in southwestern Iran.
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Sassanian 470 CE to Safavid UNESCO 2011 · Sassanian hydraulic engineers; Safavid Shah Abbas I
Sassanian qanat (5th c. CE, 12 km, 400 shafts) feeding Fin Garden, UNESCO Persian Garden archetype hydraulic core.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Early Bronze (3500–2900 BCE) · Kura-Araxes Early Bronze
Early Bronze (3500–2900 BCE) ancient-city of Kura-Araxes Early Bronze in East Azerbaijan, Moghan (c.3350 BCE).
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Sassanian 6th c. to Ilkhanid 1226 CE to present · Sassanian then Islamic Yazd hydraulic community
12th century high-discharge qanat (14 km, 320 shafts, 190 L/s) feeding Ghasemabad bagh and Yazd mills.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze (3300–2000 BCE; urban peak 2700–2200 BCE) · Kerman (Lut) Chalcolithic–Bronze / Proto-Elamite → Jiroft-related
Lut desert Bronze Age copper town with chlorite workshops and 382-grave necklace necropolis.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Early Bronze Age (3200-1800 BCE) · Helmand Culture
Shahr-e Sukhteh Workshop Quarter East Annex in Sistan, Zabul, Iran is a Early Bronze Age (3200-1800 BCE) ancient city attributed to Helmand Culture.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Apamea Ragiana (Greek: Απάμεια) – Apamea Rhagiana, Apamea Raphiana, or Apameia Rhagiane; previously, Arsace, Khuvar, and Choara – was an ancient Hellenistic city of Choarene, Media (formerly…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Bronze Age · Shahr-e Sukhteh / Helmand
Shahr-e Sukhteh Burnt City Eastern Mound at Sistan, Shahr-e Sukhteh, Iran is a Bronze Age ancient city of the Shahr-e Sukhteh / Helmand tradition, built c.
🇮🇷 Iran · Fortress
Urartian (c.685–645 BCE Rusa II) · Urartu (Kingdom of Van)
Largest Urartu fortress (100 × 300 m upper citadel, lower town 850 × 350 m) built by Rusa II, with tripartite tower, Haldi temple, pithoi storeroom (huge jars 1,500 L), and inscribed horse trappings…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Persepolis — Treasury Ancillary Archive in Fars, Marvdasht, Persepolis, Iran is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to Bron…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Iron Age III Median (c.750–600 BCE) · Median (pre-Achaemenid Iranian)
Hilltop Median triad 60 km S of Hamadan: West Temple with small fire altar inside a sanctuary, Central Temple with vaulted altar niche, and hypostyle Columned Hall (12 wooden posts on stone bases) –…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Early–Middle Bronze (2700–2100 BCE) · Halil Rud (Jiroft)
Early–Middle Bronze (2700–2100 BCE) Halil Rud (Jiroft) ancient city at Kerman Province, Jiroft plain, Halil River – northern citadel mound of jiroft twin city (dims North mound 13 m high; city 400 ha together).
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Iron Age (1200 BCE–500 CE) · Iron Age
Ancient City of Kara Kistvaen in Fars Province, Iran is a Iron Age (1200 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to Iron Age culture.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Late Neolithic to Bronze Age (c.5000–2500 BCE; Plateau Chalcolithic type) · Tehran-Qazvin plateau Chalcolithic
Twin mound 330 × 250 m, 18 m high at Savajbolagh: type site of Qazvin Plain Chalcolithic where Fazeli & Coningham revealed Sialk I–II painted transition, first crude brick, kiln, and Zagros sealings…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Early Dynastic III–Akkadian (c.2500–1900 BCE) · Halil (Jiroft) / Proto-Elamite late → Early Dynastic sphere
Monumental third-millennium citadel (13 ha, 21 m high mound with 300 m lower town) on the Halil River, excavated by Yous...
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Medes to Early Bronze (c.7000 BCE–Medes 7th c. BCE) · Medes–Achaemenid transition plus prehistoric Tappeh
Nine-period mound 15 km SSW of Qazvin with Halil Tepe–like sequence: Median mudbrick fortress + intact brick vault & rampart (oldest in Iran), Edriss Iron-Age citadel, Ozbaki Maad temple?
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Hajji Firuz to Iron I (c.5000–900 BCE) · Hajji Firuz → Early Transcaucasian → Iron
Burton-Brown 1948 type-site near Rezaiyeh (Urmia) giving K-stage Geoy sequence: Gurney’s Parallels to Pisdeli ware: Hajji Firuz burnished, Geoy M painted orange-over-buff, and Hasanlu Grey ware…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Bronze to Iron Age (c.2500 BCE–800 BCE; peak 2000–1500 BCE) · Caspian Bronze → Iron I (Amlash–Hasanlu sphere)
Gohar Tepe near the Caspian is the largest Bronze–Iron mound in Mazandaran — 50 ha with stratigraphy ca.2500 BCE to Iron I, revealing Caspian–Central Asian bron...
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Kura-Araxes to Iron III (c.3000–600 BCE) · Kura-Araxes → Urmia ware → Urartian
30-m high mound near Khoy: massive Kura-Araxes burnished black-burnished, Urmia orange painted ware, Mitanni green-glazed cylinder seals, Urartian pillar hall, Sasanian church.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Early Bronze Age Jiroft–Shahdad (3000–2000 BCE) · Jiroft culture (Halil Rud)
Shahdad — Kerman Bronze Age Oasis in Kerman Province, Iran is a Early Bronze Age Jiroft–Shahdad (3000–2000 BCE) ancient-city attributed to Jiroft culture (Halil Rud).
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Ubaid to Islamic (c.4200 BCE–1300 CE; peak Elamite–Achaemenid) · Susa I–II → Elamite → Achaemenid → Parthian–Sasanian → Islamic
Elamite and Achaemenid acropolis (14 ha, 25 m high) at Susa, capital of Elam and Darius I winter capital. French excavat...
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Urartian (8th–6th c. BCE; Argishti/Rusa) · Urartu
Small but classic Urartu hydraulic fortress damming a karstic spring valley NW of Khoy: cyclopean dam wall, rectangular fort, storage pithoi, Haldi-temple pebble mosaic, with red polish Urartu ware…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Tepe Sarab ware (c.7000–5000 BCE) · Zagros Neolithic (Sarab culture)
Small but culturally seminal tell near Kermanshah at Sarab pass with Braidwood 1947 type-site red-painted Sarab ware, proto-domestic goat bones, and pisé hamlets preceding Jarmo and Hassuna…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Urartian Late (c.685–590 BCE) · Urartian
Largest Urartian fortress (8 ha, 700 m enclosure wall, 3 km circuit) founded by Rusa II (c.685 BC) at Bastam near Qarah...
