Arg-é Bam

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Arg-é Bam, before the 2003 earthquake.
Arg-é Bam, before the 2003 earthquake.

The Arg-é Bam (ارگ بم in Persian, "Bam citadel") was the largest adobe building in the world, located in Bam, a city in the Kerman province of southeastern Iran. It is listed by UNESCO as part of the World Heritage Site "Bam and its Cultural Landscape". This enormous citadel, situated on the famous Silk Road, was built some time before 500 BC and remained in use until 1850 AD. It is not known for certain why it was then abandoned.

The entire building was a large fortress in whose heart the citadel itself was located, but because of the impressive look of the citadel, which forms the highest point, the entire fortress is named the Bam Citadel.

On December 26, 2003, the Citadel was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake, along with much of the rest of Bam and its environs (see the article on Bam for details). A few days after the earthquake, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami announced that the Citadel would be rebuilt.

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[edit] Dimensions

Larger than nearby Arg-é Rayen, the area of Bam Citadel is approximately 180,000 square meters, and it is surrounded by gigantic walls 6-7 metres high and 1815 metres long. The citadel features two of the "stay-awake towers" for which Bam is famed - there are as many as 67 such towers scattered across the ancient city of Bam.

[edit] Citadel design and architecture

The planning and architecture of the citadel are ingeniously thought out from various different points of view. From the present form of the citadel one can see that the planner(s) had foreseen the entire final form of the building and city from the first steps in the planning/drawing process. During each phase of building development the already-built part enjoyed a complete figure, and each additional part could be "sewn" to the already-built section seamlessly.

The citadel is situated in the center of the fortress-city, on the highest place to enjoy the longest and widest view for security reasons. The notable impression left by the citadel caused the entire surrounding fortress structure to be included under the name "Bam Citadel" as well.

In the architectural form of Bam Citadel there are two different distinguishable parts:

  • The rulers' part in the most internal wall, holding the citadel, barracks, mill, 4-sezonan house, water-well (dug in the rocky earth and about 40 metres deep), and a stall for 200 horses.
  • The ruled-over part surrounding the rulers' place, consisting of the main entrance of the entire fortress-city and the bazaar alongside of the North-to-South spinal axis (which connects the main entrance to the citadel), and around 400 houses with their associated public buildings (such as a school and sport place).

Among the houses, three different types are recognizable:

  • Smaller houses with 2-3 rooms for the poor families.
  • Bigger houses with 3-4 rooms for the middle social class, some of which have also a veranda.
  • The most luxurious houses with more rooms oriented in different directions suitable for different seasons of the year, together with big a court and a stall for animals nearby. There are few of this type of houses in the fortress.

All buildings are made of non-baked clay bricks, i.e. adobes. Bam Citadel was probably, prior to the 2003 earthquake, the biggest adobe structure in the world.

[edit] Security

When the gate of the city was closed, no human or animal could enter. The inhabitants could continue living for a long period of time in isolation as they had access to a well, gardens, cattle and other domestic animals inside. When the fortress-city was besieged the inhabitants could remain in the city while the soldiers could suitably defend it, protected by the high walls and towers.

[edit] Air conditioning

Besides the watch towers and ornamented tops of the high walls on the skyline of the fortress, the wind-catchers or wind-towers (in Persian: badgir بادگير) are also remarkable. They are special structures sticking out of the different buildings in order to catch the pleasant wind and lead it down into the internal spaces of the buildings. Sometime the captured wind is passed over the surface of a water basin in the building to cool it, and to remove the dust and dryness of the desert air. Different types of wind-towers are utilized for different buildings. For example there are 4-directional wind-towers for bigger and more important buildings, which are able to catch the winds which blow from different directions during different times in the day and night in all seasons, and there are 1-directional wind-towers for smaller buildings.

[edit] 2003 Earthquake

The 2003 Earthquake in Bam destroyed more than 80 percent of the Citadel. As a World Heritage site several countries are cooperating in the reconstruction project. Japan, Italy, and France are among countries which started their cooperation with this project from the very beginning. Japan has granted some 1,300,000 US dollars to Iran for the reconstruction of Bam Citadel, besides it has supported Iranian government in this project with sending some equipments and creating the 3D plan of Bam Citadel to increase the accuracy of the renovation and salvation activities of the citadel. Italy has funded 300,000 US dollars in the Salvation Project of Bam. It has also dispatched a team of Italian experts to restore the main tower of Bam. France has also helped the government of Iran by providing the map of Bam Citadel. World Bank has also granted a large sum of money to this project.

[edit] References

The original text was a translation by of the article "Bam-Citadelo", originally written in Esperanto language by Asad Mahbub, first appeared in Irana Esperantisto (Iranian Esperantist), No. 4, Year 2, Summer 2003, 40 p., pp.5-7. Permission has been granted for its use in Wikipedia. Its sources were:

  • Nimrokhi az Arge Bam (Bam Citadel at a Glance), by Davood Yousofzadeh, Bam: M. Mohammadi-zade, 1998, p160

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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