Bam (The 3000 years old city)

Arg e Bam

Bam is situated in a desert environment on the southern edge of the Iranian high plateau. The origins of Bam can be traced back to the Achaemenid period (6 th to 4 th cent. BC). Its heyday was from the 7 th to 11 th centuries, being at the crossroads of important trade routes and known for the production of silk and cotton garments. The existence of life in the oasis was based on the underground irrigation canals, the qanāts, of which Bam has preserved some of the earliest evidence in Iran. The Citadel of Bam (Arg-e Bam) is the most representative example of a fortified medieval town built in vernacular technique using mud layers (Chineh).