Firuzabad Fire Temple

About a one hour (60 km) drive south from Shiraz is Firuzabad, a small town in the province of Fars, Iran. The town is in a very dry and hot low-lying region, which makes it about at least 5 degrees Celsius hotter than Shiraz. Originally, the city was called Gur, which was destroyed by Alexander of Macedonia. Centuries later, the location was taken over by the Sassanians, who formed the Sassanid dynasty. The province of Fars, Iran was the birthplace of two dynasties 1) the Achaemenids founded by Cyrus the great and 2) the Sassanians founded by the Ardeshir son of Papak.


At the center point of the town of Firuzabad is an ancient fire temple, the temple is 30 meters high and circular in its architectural design. There is debate amongst historians about when and why the temple was built. Some mention the site as a fire temple built by the Sassanids, others believe it to have been a palace built by Ardeshir during the late Parthian or Sassanian times.


The conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great in 330 BC did not fully destroy the temple however.


The palace/temple of Ardeshir over looks a small lake fed by a rich spring. The placement of the lake is really miraculous, given that Firuzabad is so hot and dry. The color of the water is amazing as well, it’s so bright and clear that you can see right to the bottom of the lake. The water from the lake was used to feed the city of Gur.


 It is believed that a Persian style garden surrounded the lake and the palace.

DSC01222 The arched entry way was built later in the Parthian era, it is a design found mainly in Sassanian palaces. Some homes in Firuzabad have this style architecture as well. As you walk into the palace, you immediately see these very tall doorways which lead to a large 44 foot archway built in 224 AD, the throne room can be entered through this gate.


Within the palace there are many small doorways that are all built with the similar style arch.


One of the doorways connecting two of the large rooms, the doorways measure about 20 feet tall.


The throne room is a large majestic room with the height of a three story building. What is amazing about this room is that there are still remnants of plaster left on the walls which depict patterns from the Achaemenid dynasty.


There are a couple of tall rooms within the palace that have dome style ceilings with open holes at the top. This is believed to have been the throne room. I believe that if the palace was actually a fire temple, these ceilings were made to function as chimneys.


The palace used to have multiple stories as is obvious from the stairway built off of the entrance of the building but they have been destroyed. All that remains of the upper floors is the beginning of a stairwell and remnants of the walls.


A panoramic view of the outside of the temple. As can be seen, the side walls of many of the rooms are completely gone and so are most of the ceilings. Much of the structure still remains after eighteen centuries, which is really amazing given its age and the battles it has withheld.


The image above is very amazing (best for last!). Driving from Shiraz to Firuzabad, you drive through and by a lot of tall mountains. On some of these mountains are carvings from the Achaemenid and Sassasin periods. I took this picture out of the window of a moving car using a zoom lens so it is a bit blurry but it is carved high up on the mountain and is about 20 feet tall and 30 feet wide. It is a carving from the Sassanian dynasty and portrays the coronation of Ardeshir I, the founder of the Sassanian dynasty.