An Investigation of the Dating of the Main Gateway of Arg-e-Bam

The Arg, situated in the northeast of Bam, is one of the historical complexes which perfectly portrays the landscape of a traditional Iranian town. Despite some research related to its layout, there are some questions related to the architectural elements; for instance, the structure, formation, and development of the first/ main entrance of the Arg. The following paper, which is an analytical history research, tries to shed light on these unsettled questions. The results show that the gateway has three layers. The first consists of two cubic towers and dates back to the Seleucid or early Parthian era. During the reign of Seljuk/ Atabakan of Kerman and probably Kutwali (fortress holder) “Sabiq al-Din Ali” (1163-1184 AD), besides adding a layer to the cubic body of towers, another architectural layer with two cylindrical towers was constructed beside them. The last phase of the annexations was conducted in the Ilkhanid/ Muzaffarids dynasty and most likely during the reign of Sultan Abu-Saeid Bahador’s agent, “Aji Shujauddin” (1316-1343 AD). During this phase, in addition to the cylindrical towers, a fort with a north-south axis was created and a “vestibule” was also annexed. Two relatively small cylindrical towers were also built alongside the new gateway. The new layer was renovated at least twice during the Timurid period.