assessment of the architectural concept of places of worship during the Medes era in Noushijan Tappe, Zarbolagh and Tappe Ozbaki

The Medes are known as the first unified and central government of Iran. The historiography of this government faces many uncertainties, but there is no doubt that they were able to establish a unified government in Iran for the first time. The Median period is one of the least well defined periods of Iranian Archeology and Architecture. To speak of Median Art means, first of all, mentioning the huge gaps in our knowledge of Median history. However, architecture in the Medes Dynasty is surrounded with ambiguity due to limited explorations and ambiguous dates. An important part of the Medes architecture is devoted to places of worship. The central shrine of Noushijan Tappe is one of the most important ritual spaces of the Medes, and as a result of excavations and observation of the fillings, it was found that this shrine was sealed without the slightest damage. Further excavations in the territory of the Medes, revealed other sites with the same conditions as Noushijan Tappe. It was believed that these shrines had a similar fate as the central shrine of Noushijan Tappe. In this research, which is based on a descriptive-analytical method and a case study, with the aim of studying architecture from the concept of design to the function of ritual spaces of the Medes, an architectural comparison is made between  the central shrine of  Noushijan in Malayer, Zarbolagh shrine in Aliabad Qom and Ozbaki shrine in Nazarabad, in order to reach a design pattern specific to  these places of worship. The research concludes that most of the religious buildings built at the time of the Medes Empire were blocked during the Achaemenid rule. The Achaemenids only hindered access to the Medes places of worship and did not destroy them. It seems that the (XPh) inscription of Xerxes and the law against atheistic religions in the Achaemenid period caused these shrines to be blocked. We find that these religious buildings used a special architectural pattern and this pattern is repeated in different forms in most of the religious buildings constructed under the rule of the Medes. It is understood that while the function and architectural concepts remain the same in these buildings, each shows a different architectural design. The architects of that period designed the building in such a way that the sacred space is separated from the main building. Not everybody was allowed into the sacred parts, and those who wished to enter had to wait beforehand in a spare room.  Some constructs had a window built in the spare room that gave the person-in-waiting a view to the sacred room.  Unfortunately, some of the religious buildings of this historical period were destroyed after many years, which made it difficult to identify this architectural concept in them. Finally, the paper will highlight similarities between the western shrine of Noshijan Tappe and Vasun stone building in Kahak and Takhcharabad shrine in Birjand and Hajikhan shrine in Famenein with the above sites.