Bam: Jewel of Iranian heritage
BBC News
Friday, 26 December, 2003
The Iranian city of Bam is best known for its historic citadel, which is believed to have been founded some 2,000 years ago.
However most of the monuments visited every year by thousands of tourists date back to the 16th and 17th Centuries, the heyday of the Safavid dynasty.
Built out of mud bricks, clay straw and the trunks of palm trees, it is said to have been the largest structure of its kind in the world.
Reports say that the ancient citadel, located in the south-east of the country, was completely destroyed by a December 2003 earthquake.
Trading post
During the Safavid period (1501 -1736), Bam occupied six square kilometres and was surrounded by a rampart with 38 towers. It had a population of between 9,000 and 13,000.
Bam flourished as a site of pilgrimage and as a commercial and trading centre on the famous Silk Road which brought the treasures of the ancient Far East into what was Persia, across the Sahara and on to the Mediterranean and the fashionable capitals of Europe.
Following an Afghan invasion in 1722, Bam declined in importance.
The city was used as an army barracks until 1932 and then abandoned.
In 1953, the Iranian authorities began to dedicate teams of architects and historians to restoring the old quarter, attracting thousands of visitors.
Now, it appears, much of that heritage may have been lost forever.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3349353.stmI can't look at it. It's like looking at the empty holes where the statues of Bamyan used to be. It's almost as though God is saying "Don't look back, look forward"