Kharraqan Towers

In a remote valley in the south-west of Qazvin province, two brick tomb towers stand side by side on the open plain. They are the Kharraqan towers, built under the Seljuks, the eastern one in 1067–68 and the western one about twenty-five years later, in 1093. Their inscriptions name the builder Muhammad ibn Makki al-Zanjani, and they are among the most important monuments of early Seljuk architecture.

Each tower is an octagon of fired brick about thirteen metres high, with sides of about four metres, buttressed at the corners by round columns and crowned with a dome. The domes are double, an inner shell and an outer one, and are believed to be among the earliest double domes in Iran, a technique that later made possible the soaring domes of the Ilkhanid and Safavid ages. Inside, traces of painted decoration survived.

What makes the towers unforgettable is their brickwork. Every face is covered with a different geometric pattern made by setting bricks at angles, in relief and recess, so that the walls look woven. Panels of Kufic inscription run around the top. The patterns catch the light in different ways through the day, and the towers have long been studied as a catalogue of what brick alone could do.

In June 2002 a strong earthquake struck the region and badly damaged both towers. Restoration has since been carried out. Even scarred, they remain one of the purest expressions of the Seljuk love of geometry, standing alone in the fields as they have for more than nine centuries.