Подземный город Нушабад, Достопримечательность Ирана

The underground city of Nushabad

Although Nushabad was discovered only in 2004, archaeologists believe the city's structure dates back 1,500 years to the pre-Islamic Sassanid era. According to local legend, in ancient times, one of the Sassanid kings passing through the area stopped here to drink water from a spring, finding it exceptionally pure and cold. He therefore ordered the construction of a city around this spring to supply him with fresh water. He named it Anoushabad, which eventually evolved into Nushabad. Situated in Iran's central desert, the weather here is quite harsh. Nushabad is extremely hot during the day and quite cold at night.

Architectural features of the underground city of Nushabad

Today, only part of the tunnel system is open to visitors. It is periodically flooded (when visiting the city, note the two-tone walls, indicating the flood level). Even a quick descent to the first level of the underground gives an idea of ​​the complexity of this ancient engineering structure.

The original purpose of the tunnels and passages that were dug around the well was supposedly to provide shelter from the scorching sun during the hot summer days of the desert, and they also apparently served the additional function of allowing residents to move from one part of their city to another without having to face potential enemies.

Considered a masterpiece of Sassanid architecture, the city was built on three levels, between 4 and 18 meters below ground level, and included a number of ingenious devices for trapping and ambushing hostile intruders, such as winding corridors and concealed pits lined with stones. The tunnels, which were used during the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, were particularly useful as emergency shelters, as they had multiple entrances to subterranean sections, some of which were located inside city houses. Ventilation shafts allowed for extended stays underground, and a spring provided fresh water. The tunnels were eventually abandoned and only discovered in the 1920s when someone was digging a well in their home.