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Hamadan
Baba Taher Mausoleum
Avicenna Mausoleum
Ganjnameh Complex
Ali-Sadr Cave
Ecbatana (Hegmataneh) Ancient Hill (City)
Alavian Dome
Shir Sangi (Stone Lion)
Hamadan Province is an Iranian province located in the Zagros Mountains. Its center is Hamadan city. The province of Hamadan covers an area of 19,546 km². In the year 1996, Hamadan province had a population of approximately 1.7 million people.
Baba Taher or Baba Taher Oryan is an Iranian mystic and Do-beiti (Persian quatrain) poet who lived from late 4th century to mid-5th century AH (Century 11 AD) in the time of Seljuk Toghrul-Beg. Baba Taber’s poetry has been written in either Hamadani or Luri dialect “Baba” (Father) as a sobriquet given to devoted disciples, and he was called “Oryan” (Naked) because he had dismissed worldly concerns. In Lorstan, “Baba” is used for spiritual guides of Ahl-e Haqq (People of Truth). There is not enough information about Baba Taher’s family and life. According to Najmoddin Rawandi in Rahat al- sodur, Baba Taher visited Seljuk Toghrul in 1055 and was respected by him. The tomb of Baba Taher goes back to Seljuk period. It was occasionally refurbished and finally, it was constructed in the way that we can see today.
Avicenna or Abu Ali Sina/Ebn-e Sina is one of the renowned scientists and geniuses of Iran and the world whose works, especially ‘The Canon” which was a medical encyclopedia, has been translated in several languages and taught for years in the most prestigious universities all around the world. This brilliant scientist has eminent works and profound knowledge about various sciences including philosophy, mathematics, medicine, natural science, occult science, music, and psychology. He has authored 450 books on a variety of fields, mostly medicine and philosophy. In his “History of Science”, George Sarton mentions Avicenna as one of the greatest medical thinkers and scientists. His most famous works are “The Book of Healing” and ‘The Canon of Medicine”. The current tomb of Avicenna is in the houses of Abu Sa’id Dakhuk, his old friend. This monument was built by the great architect, Hooshang Seyhoun. The construction of this monument was inspired by Gonbad-e Qabus (Qabus Dome), an architectural masterpiece in Islamic history of Iran. Avicenna’s birthday, i.e. August 23, is commemorated as the National Doctors’ Day in Iran. The nearest tourist attraction to the Mausoleum is Qorban tower.
The Ganjnameh is a set of cuneiform characters written on stone in three languages (ancient Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian), against Mount Alvand. It is located in 5 km from Hamadan city. They were first studied in detail by the French painter and archaeologist Eugene Flandin, who was accompanied by Pascal Coste. Following on their work, Sir Henry Rawlinson, a British explorer, used the inscriptions as a sort of Rosetta stone to decipher the cuneiform characters of the era. The inscriptions proved to belong to the age of Darius I (521-485 BCE) and Xerxes I (485-65 BCE), refuting earlier myths that the inscriptions described the location of buried treasure-hence the name Ganjnameh, or ‘treasure epistle’. Hamadan Ganjnameh Inscriptions were registered in Iran’s National Heritage. Ganjnameh is the popular designation of two trilingual inscriptions in three languages by the Achaemenid Darius I and Xerxes in a pass through the Alvandmountain.
Ali Sadr Cave is one of the rare samples of water caves in the world. It is located 73 km to the northwest of Hamadan in a village by the same name which is one of the districts of Kabudarahang Township. Ali Sadr Cave was formed in Sariqieh Heights. There are two other caves in its vicinity: Subashi and Sarab. Their distances from Ali Sadr Cave are 11 and 7 km respectively. The caves are probably interlinked to Ali Sadr Cave in view of the extensive layers of crystallized calcareous in the region.
Ecbatana (Old Persian: Hagmatana or Hagmatana, present-day Hamadan, literally “the place of gathering”) was an ancient city in Media in western Iran. It was the capital of the Median Empire, summer capital of the Achaemenids, and satrapal seat of the province of Media from Achaemenid to Sasanian times. It is believed that Ecbatana is in Tall-e Hagmatana (Tappeh Hagmatana), near Hamadan. In the ancient world Ecbatana had a reputation for vast wealth and splendid royal architecture that encouraged exaggeration.
The square building of the Gonbad-e Alavian dates back to the Seljuk period. It was originally built, as a mosque by the Alavian family, complete with minarets and a green dome, though it was later transformed into a family mausoleum by adding a crypt to it. The interior decoration includes exquisite carved stucco and brick panels, which the architectural historian Arthur Upham Pope describes as “a tour to the power of profound imagination”. The exterior decoration features inscriptions in Kufic script that were added in the Illkhanid period. In the next periods, it was changed into a tomb for Alavian family by creating a cellar in the basement. This monument is one of the architectural and molding masterpieces after Islam in Hamadan. The nearest tourist attractions to the Dome are Ancient Ecbatana city, tomb of Esther and Mordechai.
The stone lion of Hamadan is a historical monument in Hamadan, Iran. The stone lion -one part of the ‘Lions Gate’- sits on a hill where a Parthian era cemetery is said to have been located. When first built, this statue had a twin counterpart for which they both constituted the old gate of the city. During the Islamic conquest of Persia, the victorious Arabs referred to the gate as bab ul-asad (“the lions gate”).
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