Abstract
The concept of “Cultural landscapes” reflects a relatively steady state of the interaction between humans and natural environment that occurred through centuries. There are significant cultural landscapes of high values were originated in Persian Empire more than 25 centuries ago through Silk Road and worship complexes. Takht-e Soleyman, as a typical civilizing cultural landscape site is an explicitly highlighted ground for the reasons of its initiation and persistence.
Takht-e Soleyman complex is located in West Azerbaijan, Iran that was a major worship fire temple for centuries. Geologically, it has a stratified semi-conical structure made up of calcareous Pliocene. After the collapse of the Sassanian Dynasty by the Byzantine army of Heraclius I (the Roman Emperor) in 627 AD, Takht-e Soleyman was reduced to ruins. The site has been designated by UNESCO as a world heritage in 2003 that is well known for consistency of five landscape characters that are Soleyman Throne, Soleyman Prison, Stone Dragon, Belqeis Fortress, and Fire Temples.
Several reasons conspiring to introduce and to prolong a cultural landscape in a specific area. There are other causes to sustain the existence of a cultural landscape. When Arabs invaded Iran was the time that Takht-e Soleyman was not nominated by UNESCO as an international heritage yet. But, the dwellers near Takht-e Soleyman decided to protect this worship complex by conversion of original names of the landscape elements like fire temples into by the Koranic names known to Islamic warriors. For example, they disguise the Zoroastrian original name of this famous and sacred place from “Azargoshnasb Fire-Temple” to “Takht-e Soleyman” (Throne of Solomon), or the mountain name with a major fire temple was converted to Mount Belqeis. The Takht-e Soleyman geo-cultural landscape was emerged into the demense 3000 years ago because of geological features in the area, and sacred characteristics in this worship complex have been preserved the site for the holiness of the landscape elements.
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Azari-Dehkordi, F. (2011). Introducing Geo-Cultural Landscapes in Iran. In: Hong, SK., Kim, JE., Wu, J., Nakagoshi, N. (eds) Landscape Ecology in Asian Cultures. Ecological Research Monographs. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-87799-8_5
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