Bam Citadel

The Arg-e Bam (Persian: ارگ بم), located in the city of Bam, Kerman province of southeastern Iran,

is the largest adobe building in the world. The entire building was a large fortress containing the citadel, but because the citadel dominates the ruins, the entire fortress is now named Bam Citadel.

Listed by UNESCO as part of the World Heritage Site "Bam and its Cultural Landscape", it can be traced back to at least the Achaemenid Empire (sixth to fourth centuries BC). The citadel rose to importance from the seventh to eleventh centuries, as a crossroads along the Silk Road and other important trade routes, and as a producer of silk and cotton garments.

Text adapted from “Arg-e Bam” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Bam Citadel ranks #283 of 3,734 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #5 of the 39 mapped in Iran. Founded 500 BC, it is older than 100% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 3 atlas entries founded in the 5th century BC. See how Iran compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗