Just two hours into my trip today, I pulled in to a place called Bam. I can’t tell you how incredible this place is. Bam is the location for an ancient city that dates back 2000 years.
Behold, the ancient city of Arg-e-bam
This is not the find to have only a couple of hours spare for. The majority of the city was constructed during the reign of the Safavid dynasty. Click the image and take a proper look. Please.
The citadel was the largest adobe building in the world and used ingenious methods as a form of air-conditioning. With the Silk Road running across the north of Iran, this city would have supplied the northern region and passing traders and was well-known for the quality of its dates and citrus fruit.
Red for land, blue for sea. For the time, this WAS the known world.
It is with genuine sadness that the city today is less than this impressive image. In 2003 the area was hit by a 6.6 scale earthquake that destroyed large parts of the main structure, killing over 26,000 people, or about half the population of Bam. 44 countries sent in help and 60 countries offered assistance. The area is also susceptible to sandstorms, and the monument is cleared fairly regularly because of this. Thankfully many of the main structures are being rebuilt.
But I have a date with a city nearer the border and have to go. I can see the main tower for some miles, but the road curves out into the empty desert again.