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Saturday 2004-05-29 - Kangāvar, Iran
More ancient history
Our next stop is at Kangāvar, halfway between Hamedān and Kermānshāh, where we (or at least some of us) visit the site of the Anahita temple. Only a few pillars are left to stand now, but the outlines of the original buildings can still be seen. The whole complex was burnt at the Arabian invasion - some ashes from that disaster were found by archaeologists. Of the largest building, which originally had 48 pillars, a few still stand: impressively heavy, more than a meter thick, but only some 4 meters high, with a square undecorated capitol. Walls built from small stones were Sassanid, ones with large blocks are from the Parthian period.
Anahita was a fertility goddess. The whole site is unique for several reasons: because it’s the first temple built for a goddess but also because the Zoroastrians for the first time built one of their fire temples next to that of a goddess here.
