Rudkhan Castle

Rudkhan Castle stands deep in the Hyrcanian forest of Gilan, about 20 kilometres south-west of the town of Fuman. Its brick and stone walls run for about one and a half kilometres along the ridges of two wooded peaks, at around 670 and 715 metres, with dozens of towers. In the mist that often fills the valley, it looks like a fortress from a legend.

When it was first built is not known with certainty. Many historians believe it has Sasanian origins and was rebuilt in the Seljuk period, and some accounts link its rebuilding to the Nizari Isma'ilis, whose castles studded the Alborz in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. An inscription records a renovation in the 1530s or early 1540s for a local ruler, Sultan Hesam al-Din, and for a time it was known as the Hesami fort. It remained in use into the eighteenth century.

The castle has two main parts: the arg, the residential citadel, on one peak, and the military quarters on the other, with gates, cisterns, a bathhouse and barracks between them. A river flows below, which may explain the name, often understood as “river fort”. Because the slopes are steep and the forest dense, the castle could only be approached on foot, as it still is today.

Visitors climb a long stone stairway through the woods from the car park by the river, which is why many Iranians call it Hezar Pelleh, “a thousand steps”. The climb takes about an hour, and in spring and autumn the beech and hornbeam forest around it is at its most beautiful.