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Ka'ba-ye Zartosht

Ka'ba-ye Zartosht

Photo: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Naqsh-e Rustam, Fars, Iran
Client / Owner
—
Year
Completed 6th century BC
Access
Public
Typology
Cultural
Style
—

The Ka'ba-ye Zartosht is a rectangular, stepped white limestone tower in the Naqsh-e Rustam compound near Zangiabad, Marvdasht County, in Fars. The article names no architect or original client. It dates construction to the first half of the sixth century B.C., in the early Achaemenid period, and ties its dovetail joints to the reigns of Darius I and Xerxes I.

The tower is about 39 feet (12 m) high, or 46.3 feet (14.12 m) with its triple-stair platform, and each side of its base is about 24 feet (7.3 m). Limestone blocks from Mount Sivand are set without mortar. A thirty-step stone stairway leads to one doorway 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) high. The chamber measures 12.3 by 12.2 feet (3.74 by 3.72 m).

Sasanian-era inscriptions by Shapur I and Kartir are carved on its walls. The original two-panel door is missing.

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