The Gonbad Kavus Tower

The Gonbad Kavus tower is located in Gonbad city, in the north of Iran. It is one of the tallest towers which built from red-backed brick, but it stands more than 1000 years on a hill inside the city. A few centuries ago the old Gonbad city was damaged completely by a heavy earthquake, but the brick tower stood against the earthquake strongly. The tower was built in between 1006AD and 1007AD by order of Soltan Kavus ibn Wushmgir. There are different ideas about purpose of building , and some people believe that it is Solatn Kavus tomb.

The height of tower is 55 metres which is divided in two parts, first from the tower's bottom to the below of conic roof is 37 metres and second the conic roof is 18 metres high. The perimeter of internal bottom is 30 metres and the perimeter of external bottom is 60 metres. The internal bottom’s diameter is 9.6 metres. The earliest sample of Muqarnas (stalactite work) is used in the tower which is a decorative style of Iranian architect. The geometry of building is simple, beautiful and strong, it is in the circular plan and broken by ten right angle-flanged space in the exterior of building. There is a point about 100m of the bottom’s circle plan that every body can here his / her whisper due to sound reflect effect!

By:Farzad