Takht-e- Soleyman

The archaeological site of Takhte- soleyman is concidered to be one of the most ancient sites, located in North Western Iran. From the time of the Megi who nurtured the sacred fire of adhar Gushnasp beside the bottomless lake of deepest blue until today, Takht-e Soleyman,( the Throne of Solomon), has remained for all who see it a sacred place. Dynasties have called it by different names. For some scholars it was the Parthian city of Praaspa, although this has not yet been confirmed. It was Jis to the Sassanids, Shiz to the Arabs, and to the Mongol conquerors, Saturiq. The ruins of Takt-e Soleyman lie in a broad and remote mountain valley southeast of Maragheh. Sassanian built massive stone walls and the remnants of thirty-eight towers around the lake by the in the third century A. D. After their coronation at Ctesiphon near present-day Baghdad, Sassanid kings journeyed here on foot to receive the divine investiture at the sanctuary of the eternal flame which left no ashes and from which all other sacred fires were ignited.The site includes the principal Zoroastrian sanctuary partly rebuilt in the Ilkhanid (Mongol) period (13th century) as well as a temple of the Sasanian period (6th and 7th centuries AD) dedicated to Anahita. In archeological surveys around the area of the fire-temple a variety of coins, tiles and a huge copper cooking vessel (a remnant of the Islamic period), have been discovered. The Soleiman prison which consists of the remnants of a pre-historic and the Medes temple is included in this aggregate. Sites such as dormant volcanoes, thermal springs and streams around Takht-e-Soleyman are worth surveying.
on July 3, 2003 Twenty- four sites were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List; one of these sites was our own Takht- e- Soleyman.

See the pictures:

http://www.payvand.com/news/03/jul/takhtsoleyman.jpg
http://www.salamiran.org/CT/Tourism/tour/p18.jpg
http://www.bamjam.net/Iran/images/Sulei01.jpg
http://www.bamjam.net/Iran/images/Sulei02.jpg
http://www.bamjam.net/Iran/images/Sulei04.jpg
http://www.bamjam.net/Iran/images/Sulei06.jpg