Iran - Andrew Burke [44]
In the hot southern deserts you will see the remains of yakh dans (mud-brick ice houses) built to store ice through the summer. Water, often from a qanat Click here, was left outside to freeze during winter – the ice that formed was scraped off and then moved to an adjoining building, often a stepped dome. The yakh dan at Meybod near Yazd resembles a circular ziggurat outside and a vast hollow egg inside. Yazd is also famous for its badgirs (windtowers; Click here), while Esfahan still has many curious-looking circular towers used to rear pigeons for meat and manure.
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Remains from the Achaemenid era show links with the old ziggurats in their shape and decoration. The Achaemenid style also incorporated features taken from Egyptian and Greek architecture. They built colossal halls supported by stone and wooden columns with typically Persian bull’s-head capitals. The most usual building materials were sun-dried brick and stone.
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DOMES & MINARETS
The development of the dome was one of the greatest achievements of Persian architecture. The Sassanians (AD 224–642) were the first to discover a satisfactory way of building a dome on top of a square chamber by using two intermediate levels, or squinches – the lower octagonal and the higher 16-sided – on which the dome could rest. Later domes became progressively more sophisticated, incorporating an inner semicircular dome sheathed by an outer conical or even onion-shaped dome. Externally the domes were often encased in tiles, with patterns so elaborate they had to be worked out on models at ground level first.
The minaret started life as an entirely functional tower, from the top of which the muezzin called the faithful to prayer. However, during the Seljuk period (AD 1051–1220) minarets became tall, tapering spires, which were far more decorative than practical. Since it is feared that someone standing atop a minaret can look into the private family areas of nearby houses, Shiite mosques often have a separate hut-like structure on the roof from where the muezzin makes the call to prayer (azan; though these days it’s more likely to be a tape recording). Most minarets still have a light, often green (the colour of Islam), in the uppermost gallery. Traditionally these lights and indeed the minarets themselves acted as a beacon to direct people coming to town to pray.
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Alexander the Great’s arrival in 331 BC effectively ended the Achaemenid style of architecture in Persia. Instead the influence of Greece and Macedonia grew even stronger. No great examples remain today, although the now-ruined Anahita Temple at Kangavar was built with Greek capitals to honour a Greek goddess. Under the Parthians (from 247 BC to AD 224) a few characteristically Persian features, including the iwan, began to appear.
In the Sassanian period (AD 224–642), buildings became larger, heavier and more complex; Ardashir’s Palace at Firuz Abad is one monumental example. The four-iwan plan with domed, square chambers became increasingly common, with the distinctive Persian dome seen for the first time. The Sassanians built fire temples throughout their empire and the simple plan of the earliest examples was retained throughout the pre-Islamic era, even in the design of churches.
The Arab Conquest & Early Persian Islamic Style
The Arab conquest didn’t supplant the well-developed Sassanian style but it did introduce the Islamic element that was to have such a pervasive impact on Persian arts. Not only did the Arab period (AD 642–1051) shape the nature and basic architectural plan of religious buildings, but it also defined the type of decoration – no human representation was to be permitted, and ceremonial tombs or monuments also fell from favour. In place of palace complexes built as symbols of royal majesty came mosques designed as centres of daily life for ordinary people.
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In desert cities, such as Yazd and Esfahan, minarets are quite tall because they traditionally acted as a landmark for caravans