Aladdin Tower

The Aladdin Tower (), also known as the Aladole Tower () and as Gunbad-i Ala al-Din (), is a mausoleum and tower built over the tomb of its patron, located in the centre of Varamin, in the province of Tehran, Iran. The structure was completed in , during the Ilkhanid era.

The mausoleum was added to the Iran National Heritage List on 6 January 1932 and is administered by the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran.

History

The tomb tower of 'Ala ad-din was completed in 1289 CE during the Ilkhanid era and is located to the north of Varamin, a small town south of Tehran. It continues a well-established Iranian tradition of funerary architecture in the form of a tomb tower, its earliest precedent being the Seluk monument Gunbad-i Qabus, completed in 1006 CE. This type of mausoleum began as a tall cylinder with a canonical roof, marking, through sheer verticality, the grave of its patron (often a minor dynast, amir, or isfahasalar). The tomb tower puts more emphasis on the exterior, as opposed to the interior, of the sacred space, in contrast to the domed square mausoleum, the other predominant type of mausoleum in Iran.

Architecture

The tomb is a cylindrical triacontadigonal tower in the inside and a thirty-two right-angled triangular flanges or columns on the outside. Made of high-quality baked bricks assembled in a hazarbaf (decorative brickwork, literally meaning "thousand weaving") decorative pattern, the flanges ascend from the plinth until they meet the cornice that supports the conical roof with corbelled groin arches. Between the upper end of the flanges and the small groin arches above them runs an inscription band paralleling the zigzag shape of the flanges. The cornice displays fine tile work alternating between unglazed and glazed terracotta in light blue. As with most tomb towers, the tomb tower of 'Ala ad-Din has a double-shell dome, conical on the exterior and spherical on the inside, above the circular interior plan.

The structure is high on the exterior and inside. The diameter of the structure is on the exterior and inside.

Recent restoration of the tomb tower has preserved the interior brick dado and floor, as well as addressing the rebuilding of the lower flanges, the canonical roof, and the restoration of the northern and southwest entrances. The main northern entrance is a semicircular arched portal embedded in a pointed arch niche whose walls merge into the flanges. The southwest portal comprises two pointed arches, one on top of the other; both are plastered and filled with stalactites.

With its decorative work comprising glazed tile mosaic and bricks juxtaposed to a substantial quantity of unglazed brickwork, the tomb tower of 'Ala ad-din is an exemplary manifestation of the more austere tilework of the period.

See also

* List of mausoleums in Iran
* List of towers in Iran
* Islam in Iran

References

Further reading

*
*
*

External links

{{Varamin

13th-century religious buildings and structures in Asia
Buildings and structures in Tehran province
Buildings and structures completed in 1289
Domes in Iran

Ilkhanid architecture
Mausoleums in Iran
Mausoleums, shrines and tombs on the Iran National Heritage List
Religious buildings and structures completed in the 1280s
Religious buildings and structures with domes
Towers in Iran
Varamin