Bam Citadel; Historical Site of Kerman
Citadel of Bam is the oldest and biggest clayey castle in the world. Architecture of the castle is special and it was used for different purposes. Herzfeld has said that antiquity of this place is dating back to nearly 2000 years B.C.
Historical Events
There is not a lot information about the date of construction of the Citadel. Different passengers and historians have written different stories about here. In the past, some clashes like Haftvad broke out. Haftvad attacked Ardeshir for three times but in the third one, Ardeshir defeated him. After defeating Haftvad, Ardeshir ordered to destroy the castle and construct a new one. It is possible to say that the oldest part of the castle dates back to the first ages of Sassanid era. During Parthian and Sassanid era, people were constructing castles to protect themselves so that the enemies couldn’t attack them easily. Based on historical possibilities, there are four reasons for constructing the citadel of Bam; defending themselves, using it as military base, prepare water and religious reasons.
Defending
The citadel was built on a height hill which was too hard for enemies to access there.
Military Base
Digging ditches for defending the castle was the other reason. The castle was a great place for archers to defend the city. Width of the ditches was between 5 to 15 and depth of them was 4 meters. Ditches with these dimensions were hard for enemies to pass. The Citadel has different towers from which the soldiers warned people.
Preparing Water
There were three ways connected to the wells for preparing water of the castle.
Security System
The security system was high during the era of constructing the citadel. Narrow alleys and underground canals is demonstrating the high security system of here in the past. Area of the rectangular citadel, with 300 meters’ length and 200 meters’ width, is 6000 hectares. The citadel and buildings near it were surrounded by walls. It seems that there used to be an old city which was a place for living common people and citadel was a place for kings and nobles.
Earthquake of Bam
In the year of 2003, the citadel was leveled to the ground by a strong earthquake of Bam with power of 6.6 Richter.
From 2003 until know, different teams from Japan and Italy have been trying to repair the citadel. Nearly 70 percent of destructions has been repaired.
Address: Iran, Kerman Province, Bam City, Arg-e Bam or Citadel of Bam
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