The Role of the Parthian's Zahhak Complex in the Expansion of Mithraism and its Regional Architectural Characteristics

During history, few eras have been as ambiguous and dark as Parthians. Mithraism ideology had king’s support and promised salvation and a new after-death world to the soldiers. From this view, Parthians cared about the political aspect of the religion rather than the religion itself. Mithras Temple is a good example of political reaction of Parthians against Roman religious architectures. After Parthians’ conquers and the increase of border conflicts in the western and northwestern parts of Iran, remains of Zahhak can be considered as the focus of power center in first century A.D. In a way that the influence of religion is evident with direct and determining presence of temple in martial-political destiny of the country. Since unlike the other regions, the Parthian temples have not been discovered so far from inside Iran this study aims to introduce Zahak Temple in northwest Iran through describing its historical, geographic, and cultural backgrounds to conclude that Zahak can be viewed as a gate of Mithraism entrance to Europe and a start point of Iranian thought influence into the west.