Takht-e Soleymān is an archaeological site in West Azarbaijan, Iran. It lies midway
between Urmia and Hamadan, very near the present-day town of Takab,
and 400 km west of Tehran.
The originally fortified site, which is located on a volcano crater rim, was recognized
as a World Heritage Site in July 2003. The citadel includes the remains
of a Zoroastrian fire temple built during the Sassanid period and partially rebuilt
during the likhanid period. This site got this Semitic name after the Arab
conquest. This temple housed one the three “Great Fires” or “Royal Fires” that
Sassanid rulers humbled themselves before in order to ascend the throne. The
fire at Takht-i Soleiman was called ādur Wishnāsp and was dedicated to the
arteshtar or warrior class of the Sasanid.
Folk legend relates that King Solomon used to imprison monsters inside the
100 m deep crater of the nearby Zendan-e Soleyman “Prison of Solomon”. Another
crater inside the fortification itself is filled with spring water; Solomon is
said to have created a flowing pond that still exists today. Nevertheless, Solomon
belongs to Semitic legends and therefore, the lore and namesake (Solomon’s
Throne) should have been formed following Arab conquest of Persia.
A 4th century[citation needed] Armenian manuscript relating to Jesus and
Zarathustra, and various historians of the Islamic period, mention this pond.
The foundations of the fire temple around the pond is attributed to that legend.
Archaeological excavations have revealed traces of a 5thcentury BC Occupation
during the Achaemenid period, as well as later Parthian settlements
in the citadel. Coins belonging to the reign of Sassanid kings, and that of the
Byzantine emperor Theodosius II (AD 408-450).