Falak-ol-Aflak: The Historic Fortress of Khorramabad, Iran
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Iran
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Qajar, Sassanid
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page11 sections
History
Falak-ol-Aflak is a historic fortress in Khorramabad, Iran, whose origins are attributed to the Sasanian period around AD 651. Its construction has also been connected with Shapur I, a major early ruler of the Sasanian dynasty, which governed Iran from AD 224 to 651. The fortress is probably the Sasanian stronghold of Shapurkhast, although the identification remains cautious. It stands above the historic Khorramabad valley and has served successively as a seat of government, treasury, administrative center, military headquarters, prison, and museum.
Sasanian and Medieval Foundations
The fortress was associated with the nearby Sasanian city of Shapurkhast. After that city was destroyed, present-day Khorramabad was established in approximately the seventh Islamic century on the same site. From the sixth Islamic century onward, the fortress was also called Khorramabad Fortress. Other historical names included Twelve-Towered Fortress and Atabakan Palace. The name Falak-ol-Aflak, meaning “sky of skies,” became established after the Qajar period.
In the fourth Islamic century, the fortress served as a government seat for the Hasanwayhids, a medieval Iranian dynasty that controlled parts of western Iran. Under the Buyids, it functioned as a treasury. It later became the court treasury of the Badr family, a local ruling house, and then served as a seat of the Atabaks of Lesser Lur, a medieval ruling dynasty in Lorestan. From the Safavid period through the Qajar period, it was the headquarters of the governors of Lorestan.
Qajar Reconstruction and Administrative Use
By the Qajar period, which lasted from the late eighteenth century until 1925, the fortress had partly fallen into ruin. Muhammad Ali Mirza Dowlatshah, appointed governor of Kermanshah and Lorestan, ordered its reconstruction. The work added a divankhana, an administrative government hall, and barracks below the fortress. The complex subsequently served as a regional command center and as an administrative and military headquarters.
Further repairs were undertaken by Ehtesham al-Dowleh, a Qajar prince and provincial governor, who also restored the surrounding grounds. Later construction on the hill included buildings, towers, private quarters, a bathhouse, and stronger fortifications. Mirza Abu Taleb Khan had earlier carried out minor repairs and lived at the fortress. By the early twentieth century, however, the associated stable, barracks, and artillery buildings were deteriorating. A description from 1917 records their destruction, while the palace courtyard and its pool were still standing but damaged.
Garrison, Prison, and Museum
During the reign of Reza Shah, the Pahlavi period brought new buildings for a stable, barracks, and the headquarters of the Fifth Division of the Imperial Iranian Army around the Twelve-Towered enclosure. The complex became a military garrison, and until 1951 it stored the division’s ammunition, including mines and explosives.
After the ammunition was removed in 1951, the fortress was prepared for housing deportees and was later used as a political prison. Interior halls were altered for imprisonment, and a channel was reportedly cut through the middle of the halls for prisoners held in shackles. The prison closed in 1968, after which the fortress briefly served as a military records archive.
In 1969, Falak-ol-Aflak was transferred to the Lorestan Department of Culture and Arts and entered Iran’s national heritage register as number 883. A regional Lorestan ethnographic exhibition opened in 1975, followed by a museum of Lorestan bronzes in 1977. Museum activity was interrupted after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. During the Iran-Iraq War, objects were gathered for security, and exhibitions resumed after the war when part of the building had been repaired. An exhibition of photographs, stone objects, and pottery reopened, while an archaeology museum was established in 1997 and became operational in 1999 after improvements to its facilities.
The museum closed from 2006 to 2008 because suitable preservation facilities were lacking. In 1999, part of the first courtyard was converted into a teahouse, and the restoration laboratory was equipped and moved to the southern part of that courtyard. The southern part of the second courtyard now contains the ethnographic museum. A first phase of restoration and reconstruction was completed in 2010.
Earthquakes have damaged the fortress at several periods. A mid-twentieth-century earthquake destroyed the northwestern tower, while an earthquake in the early 1980s damaged the southwestern tower and its walls. Both towers were later reconstructed with metal frameworks, and a subsequent earthquake in Lorestan caused some battlements to collapse. Two former fortress-associated buildings survive within the present grounds of Lorestan University. One is a two-story classroom building registered nationally as number 3765; its matching counterpart was demolished in 1994 and replaced by a chemistry department. A one-story building is used as a bank, and another Pahlavi-period building survives at the present officers’ club.
After the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps established a military compound south of the fortress and occupied parts of its surroundings. This has obstructed efforts to clear the area around the national monument and pursue world heritage registration. A later urban-development program selected Khorramabad as a model tourism city, with Falak-ol-Aflak as its central focus and with conservation and organization of the surrounding historic monuments among its stated objectives.
Remains
Falak-ol-Aflak occupies the highest point of Khorramabad on a large natural hill or isolated rocky outcrop near the Khorramabad River and the Golestan spring. The river and steep slopes provide natural protection on several sides, while the elevated position overlooks the historic valley. The fortress covers approximately 5,300 square meters. Its highest walls rise about 22.5 to 23 meters above the hill, and the hill and fortress together stand approximately 40 meters above the surrounding city.
Enclosure and Fortifications
The present fortress has an irregular octagonal plan formed by eight towers, two courtyards, large halls, smaller rooms, corridors, and approximately 300 parapets. Earlier descriptions and visual evidence indicate that a twelve-towered enclosure once surrounded it. That outer enclosure had a double-layered rampart, or defensive wall, extending especially along the western side. Two of its towers survive in the northwestern and southwestern parts, and remnants of the former enclosure remain visible northwest of the fortress.
A lower, roughly bowl-shaped enclosure surrounded the upper fortress. It had gates to the south and north and several towers, including a strongly built Stone Tower made of plaster, brick, and cut stone. Historical descriptions also mention a prominent tower called Falak-ol-Aflak, which was taller than the other towers. A three-doored room stood at its summit, with views over the river, gardens, and city. Another description records a spring-fed pool approximately 60 meters long and 40 meters wide within the palace complex.
Courtyards and Interior Spaces
Entrance and First Courtyard
The entrance lies on the northern side and opens through a passage into the first courtyard. The entrance opening measures approximately 10.2 meters wide and three meters high. The fortress uses mud brick, ordinary and fired brick, stone, wood, and gypsum-and-lime mortar. The first courtyard is oriented north to south and measures approximately 22.5 by 31 meters. Four towers border it, with two positioned to the north and northwest and two to the south and southwest.
Bathhouse and Well
The old bathhouse stood on the northern side of the first courtyard near the well and remained usable until the end of the Qajar period. Its surviving traces include ceramic water pipes, lime designs or plaster decoration, and underground channels. The well lies northeast of the courtyard behind a tall blind arch. It is approximately 40 meters deep, with most of its shaft cut through rock to reach the Golestan spring. The well supplied water to the fortress’s inhabitants and is described as still usable.
Second Courtyard and Museum Halls
The second courtyard is oriented east to west and measures approximately 21 by 29 meters. Four towers surround it, while large interconnected halls occupy its four sides. These halls have been converted into museum spaces. The southern side contains a concealed escape route, and underground spaces occur on the northern and eastern sides. The southern part of the courtyard houses the ethnographic museum.
Earlier descriptions of the complex also record interior quarters, public and private rooms, a bathhouse, stables, a prison area, artillery facilities, a post station, a mill, and ruined ground within the surrounding enclosure. A chaparkhaneh, or post and courier station, formed part of this wider range of uses.
Moisture Control and Later Buildings
More than one meter-high channels run beneath and throughout the fortress area. They were once interpreted as refuges but are now understood as a moisture-control system designed to protect stone and wood from damp conditions. The arrangement reflects attention to local climate variation and groundwater, while the fortress’s elevated position allowed wind to dry its foundations.
Pahlavi-period buildings associated with the fortress use east-west planning, symmetrical layouts, expansion joints, projecting brickwork, and pitched roofs. Their combination of Iranian and European-derived features has been described as Iranian-European architecture. One surviving building has been covered with white cement. Restoration completed in 2010 repaired courtyard drainage channels with cut stone approximately six centimeters wide, renewed mortar joints, replaced bricks, rebuilt ruined battlements and vault arches, and restored the entrance doors and windows.
The fortress now contains ethnographic and archaeological displays. Its museum has twelve display cases, each presenting approximately fifty historical items, linking the surviving architectural complex with collections from Lorestan’s history.
