Damghan

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Damghan is a city of Iran, in Semnan Province, 216 mi. from Tehran on the high-road thence to Khorasan, at an elevation of 3770 ft. and in 36° 10' N., 54° 20' E. Pop. (1996) 49,200.

The city has a trade in pistachios and almonds, the latter being of the kind called Kaghazi ("of paper") with very thin shells, famous throughout the country.

[edit] History

Damghan was an important city in the middle ages, but only the Tari-khaneh ruined mosque with a number of massive columns and some fine wood carvings and two minarets of the 11th century remains of that period. Near the city, a few miles south and south-west, are the remains of Hecatompylos, extending from Frat, 16 mi. south of Damghan, to nearly 20 mi. west. Damghan was destroyed by the Afghans in 1723. On an eminence in the western part of the city are the ruins of a large square citadel with a small white-washed building, called Molud Khaneh (the house of birth), in which Fath Ali Shah was born (1772). The Tari Khaneh (cA. 9th century), Possibly the oldest known mosque in Iran still stands in the city.

In the southeast of city there is ruin of a castle from Sassanids and now called Tappeh Hessar which it thought to be a garrison. After excavation in 1996, archeologists announced that the area ruins indicated 3 cities from 3 different eras. The eldest one dates back to 4000 BCE when the Aryans settled in the Iranian plateau.