Takht-e Soleyman

Takht-e Soleyman, “the throne of Solomon”, stands on a low mound in the mountains of West Azerbaijan, ringed by a stone wall around a lake. The lake is fed by a spring from below, and the water is rich in minerals that have built up the mound over millennia. In the Sasanian period this was the site of Adur Gushnasp, one of the three great fire temples of the Zoroastrian empire, traditionally associated with the warrior class and the kings.

Within the oval wall, entered by two gates, lie the remains of the fire temple and its halls, built of stone and brick around the turquoise lake. Sasanian kings are said to have come here on pilgrimage on foot. The sanctuary is thought to have been sacked by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius in the 620s. Its later name, attributing it to Solomon, belongs to the Islamic era.

In the thirteenth century the site was revived as a summer palace by the Mongol Ilkhanid ruler Abaqa Khan, and some of the finest Ilkhanid tiles, with dragons and phoenixes, were found here. Nearby rises Zendan-e Soleyman, “Solomon's prison”, a hollow cone left by an older spring. The ensemble was inscribed by UNESCO in 2003. Visitors walk the rim of the lake, whose still water looks bottomless.