A Study on Mehmandūst Tower

Mausoleum towers are of monuments that their exterior façade is of paramount importance. A type of them enjoys triangular fluted projections in its exterior body and Gonbad-e Qabus is the earliest known tower of this kind. These projections have distance. There is also another tower that resembles Gonbad-e Qabus in this regard. The latter is Mehmāndūst Tower in Damqan that dates back to the Seljuq period in which there existed many architectural innovations. Although there are a number of investigations on this tower, but the author’s research proved that more investigations can be done on its innovations and other points that have not been investigated in this building. It can also be compared with other similar towers that enjoy fluted projections. Consequently, the aim of this research is to study Mehmāndūst Tower in terms of architecture, decorative elements, innovations as well as being as a fluted mausoleum tower. It is worthy of mentioning that the interior of this building is completely simple and lacks a dome at the moment. There is no specific description or image of the dome in any available historical document. For the same reason, the present research is more focused on the exterior part of the tower that constitutes the important part of the mausoleum towers. This investigation uses descriptiveanalytical method and library and field studies have been also used. This research firstly examines previous investigations of Mehmāndūst Tower and then introduces the tower. Later, the exterior part of the monument has been investigated in three parts: the base, middle part and the upper section. Afterwards, the entrance of the tower has been looked into. Thereafter, some facts about the dome have been presented and finally the conclusion has been offered. The findings are divided into three categories: 1) The exterior façade of the tower, 2) Innovations used in comparison with earlier towers, and 3) The exterior façade as one of the fluted mausoleum towers. The most important findings are as follows: based on the old images in brick bond of the exterior façade the horizontal and vertical strips were not as they seem today in a way that the horizontal ones were not empty and it is also probable that the vertical brick bond of the façade would enjoy Angoshfeshārā strips. In addition, the body of the tower had been directly connected to the base and there was no staircase-like point at their place of joint as it looks like today. Contrary to its present situation, it seems that brick bond of the base lacked any decoration. Among the innovations employed in this monument, one can mention its moqarnas that its place and design are quite different from the earlier known towers. This moqarnas stands at the lowest part of the upper section of the tower where it transforms a dodecagonal fluted circumference into a circular form. Moreover, this tower has prominent dissimilarities with other towers with projections: the main part of the exterior body is dodecagonal and its projections function as decorative elements. The upper part of its body is also extraordinary among its similar instances for a number of reasons: appearance of moqarnas at the point of transformation, emergence of a circular part at the top of the fluted section and beneath the dome, complicated decorations, complete separation of decorations from the projected part and their position where the transformation into the upper circular part occurs and finally the proportion of big width of the decorated section to the entire body of the monument. Among all similar buildings, the upper part of Tughrul Tower (belonging to the Seljuq period) resembles Mehmāndūst Tower the most.