The Beautiful and Ancient City of Kashan, Iran

[Mahmood Daneshvar]

Kashan is an city of some 397,000 in north central Iran's Isfahan Province, some two hours south of capital Teheran, known for its rose water, silks/textiles, and rugs. Its history stretches back into ancient times, as one of the main places settled by the Aryan tribe as far back as 7,500 years ago. Over the course of its history it became one of the Middle East's most prestigious cities but also faced its share of challenges, such as destruction by the Mongols in 1256 and a devastating earthquake in 1778. Though still largely unknown to foreign visitors, today it offers them a magnificent legacy of beautiful palaces, castles, manses, mosques, gardens, and more. Here are some of the highlights.


[Editor's note: flights between Iran and a number of countries have been temporarily suspended because of the coronavirus crisis, so keep in mind that this is information for future reference.]

Notable Sites

Fin Garden

Built in the early 16th century during the rule of Persia's great Safavid dynasty and named after the nearby village of Fin where it originated, Iran's oldest extant garden includes pools, fountains, and other water features, all surrounded by walls with four circular towers. It's planted with  jasmine, tulips, lilies, and violets, as well as plane trees, orange and other fruit trees, and cypresses, and other features include a pool house and a bath house (famous for being the spot where an exiled, mid-19th-century Persian chancellor was assassinated upon the order of the shah of the day. Located today in an outlying area of the city, the garden is also home to the National Museum of Kashan, whose collection includes marvelous ceramics, textiles, and calligraphy. 

Borujerdi House

One of the around 20 of the grand historic manses of Kashan, it was built in 1857 for the wife of a wealthy merchant named Borujerdi, and includes a courtyard with a fountain pool, pergolas, wind towers (traditional in Persin architecture to provide natural ventilation), traditional dome, and ornamentation including frescoes, glasswork, mirrors, and stucco work.

Abbasi House

Built over the course of 20 years in the later 19th century for affluent glass merchant Ibrahim Kashi. Inside, grand mirrors, intricate plasterwork, and stained glass; of particular interest in one of the rooms is a ceiling studded with mirror pieces meant to suggest a starry sky under the glint of evening candlelight. These days the manse houses a restaurant, teahouse, a traditional restaurant, and shop.

Ameri House

Even older and larger/more grandiose than the previous two, this stuccoed brick palace was built in the 18th century for the city's governor and revamped in the 19th after earthquake damage. It contains 85 rooms, two bathhouses, and seven courtyards with nurseries and springs. Like the others mentioned, the interior here is embellished with gypsum work, elaborate mirrors, and stained glass windows. Nowadays it's home to a traditional style hotel.

Agha Bozorg Mosque

Built in the late 18th century and containing an Islamic academy as well as a prayer mosque, this complex, ranging in height from two to five stories (the Islamic world's only mosque reaching five stories), is considered the finest of its kind in Kashan as well as of of its day in general, symetrically designed and balancing the four main principals of Islamic architecture and design, known as  Mogharnas, Yazdi Bandi, Gereh Sazi, and Rasmi Bandi. Its most notable features include a dazzling entry portal flanked by a pair of minarets; two great vaulted spaces (one vault based on eight colossal pillars and facilitating cool air streaming underneath to ameliorate the heat of summer); an 18-meter dome; and a large central courtyard with a fountain pool. Adornments include elaborate plasterwork, wood carvings, and blue-and-white tilework. Another interesting note is that the entrance door has 6,666 nails, equivalent to the number of verses in the Koran, and also serving the practical purpose of strengthening the door against termites and in times of war.

Sialk Hill

An archaeological site located on the outskirts of Kashan near the Fin Garden, Tepe Sialk is a Neolithic archaeological site attributed to a still largely mysterious civilization referred to as the Elamite or Zayandeh River Culture, which inhabited this area as far back as the 6000s BCE. Excavated in the 1930s and again in the early 2000s, it's comprised of a northern and a southern mound, its central structure is a ziggurat. Its main artifacts include clay tablets as well as stoneware painted with designs of geometry, plants, animals, and humans. Particularly outstanding are its spouted "rosary tube" pots, speculated to have been used in funerary services and buried with the bodies.

The Underground City of Nushabad

Located under the city of Aran o Bidgol, a few minutes' drive north of central Kashan, what's considered the greatest underground city on the planet was carved out during the Sassani Empire of the 3rd to 7th century, as a refuge from local insecurity as well as to provide relief from scorching summer heat. Distibuted among three levels, these passageways, chambers, sleeping nooks, toilet and cooking areas, and other spaces  range from four to 18 meters in height (with certain areas so tight you need to crouch or even crawl).


Notable Events

Rosewater Festival

Held in from the 16th to 26th of May in the outlying towns of Qamsar, Niasar, and Barzok, it celebrates the springtime blooming of roses along with the ancient artisanal production of water steeped in rose petals, used to flavour food, as a component in some cosmetic and medical preparations, and for religious purposes. It's still conducted in traditional fashion, with flowers sometimes carried on donkeys and camels from the nurseries to the workshops, accompanied by music and dancing. 

Qali Shuyan Ceremony

Held during the third week of September, this service in memory of the powerful 17th-century Shiite imam Sultan Ali, son and emissary of a powerful 17th-century imam, sent here by his father to preach and killed by agents of the local Sunni rulers of the time. It takes place in the village of Mashhad Ardehal, 42 kilometers west of Kashan, where the black-garbed faithful assemble in Ali's tomb-shrine carrying the remains of the carpet supposedly used to wrap his body of Sultan Ali, mourning and symbolically beating the carpet with long sticks both to clean it and to show their hatred towards the enemies of Sultan Ali and to demand revenge for his martyrdom. They wash the carpet in a nearby stream (as Ali's body was washed), then bring it back to the mosque, where the observance ends with a giant noontime feast.

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