Iran · 9th century
Pāpak Fort or Babak Castle (Persian: قلعه بابک, romanized: Ghal’eh-e Bābak), is a large citadel on the top of a mountain in the Arasbaran forests, 50 km from Ahar, one parasang from Ardabil, 6 km southwest of Kalibar City in northwestern Iran. According to Ibn al- Nadim, it was the stronghold of Javidhan and Babak Khorramdin, the leaders of the Khurramites in Iranian Azerbaijan who fought the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate. The fort was conquered and ruined by Abbasid general Afshin's army in 837.
Text adapted from “Babak Fort” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Babak Castle ranks #1,172 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #15 of the 173 mapped in Iran. Founded c. 810, it is older than 95% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 88 atlas entries founded in the 9th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,878 times in the last 60 days, more than 77% of the atlas. See how Iran compares in the castle statistics.
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