Kalat-e Naderi () is a massive natural fortress located about 44 miles north of Sousia, in

Kalat County Kalat County () is in Razavi Khorasan province, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Kalat, Razavi Khorasan, Kalat. History After the 2016 National Census, Charam Rural District (Kalat County), Charam Rural District wa ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. It is essentially a massive plateau about four miles in circumference that has been used as a fortress since before the Achaemenid era. It is surrounded on three sides by high cliff walls ranging from 1500 feet on the south side to 2000 feet on the west side with lower eastern walls and a gently sloping plain leading up to the heights from the north. It is famous as the only fortress ever to withstand a siege by

Tamerlane Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol tradition, Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timuri ...

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

's army laid siege to it. While Alexander left to deal with a rebellious

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

chieftain, he ordered Craterus to command the majority of the army and take the fortress. Some of the first European travellers to travel there include Sir John McNeill and Colonel Beake (brother of Charles Tilstone Beke). It was more fully described by William Gill, after his expedition with Valentine Baker in 1873:

Kila't is one of the most remarkable places in the world; it is a natural fortress, and if anything in the world can be impregnable it is certainly Kila't. The description of the Happy Valley in the romance of " Rasselas" might almost be taken for it. It is a large valley, surrounded on all sides by mountains absolutely inaccessible from the outside. ..The inhabitants have their herds, and cultivate their corn, all in the valley, and consequently they could not be starved out.

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