The
Azarakhsh Fire Temple is one of the extinct fire temples of
Iran. This Fire Temple is built 5 km off
Darab city, towards the south-east, at the foot of a mountain, and has an amazing structure with ‘chelipa’ façade (cross shaped), which is now-a-days called ‘the Stone Mosque” (Masjed Sang).
Some scholars believe that the
Azarakhsh Fire Temple was initially a temple of Aryan Mehr worshipers and was converted to fire temple in the Sassanid era.
In the lunar year of 652, during the time of Mohammad Hassan Mobarez, an alter was added to the Fire Temple, and from then onwards this structure was converted into a mosque.
Today it is referred to as the Stone Mosque.
This fire temple that is considered as one of the pent house style structures of the Sassanian era, like all other pent house structures of this era, is square shaped.
The inside walls are covered by plaster mortar and the thickness of the plaster layers is 5 cm. The pent house sections were mainly used for religious purposes.
This extinct historic
...see more structure is built of stone and hand beaten plaster used as mortar.
The Fire Temple has a magnificent structure with cross shaped façade and a corridor around it. It spans 420 square meters and has been carved into the mountain stones.
Outside the Fire Temple a small room is situated, also carved into the mountain, and seems to have been for the guardian of the Fire Temple. Entering this room one descends three stairs and reaches a room 8 meters long.
Based on the remains it appears that its construction was initiated by carving the mountain downwards starting around the area of the open end ceiling.
At the entrance is a small porch and surrounding the main structure is a portico. The entrance is sandwiched in between two columns that are carved in and connected to the wall housing the entrance.
Most of the ceilings are curved similar to what can be seen in various Iranian structures. There are different inscriptions on the structure, one of them directly above the altar.
Because of the natural deterioration, most of the inscriptions are not legible any more.
Close to the Azarakhsh Fire Temple a stone mill with unique architecture was built inside the mountain. This mill has two huge stone furnaces which allow water entry to the mill.
The Azarakhsh Fire Temple is registered as natural heritage site number 229. In 2010 some renovations were being planned in order to preserve the Azarakhsh Fire Temple with some 200 million rials allocated to the project.
References:
http://historicaliran.blogspot.com
http://www.amordaden.blogfa.com
http://english.irib.ir/radioculture/Iran/history
