Khaled Nabi cemetery Iran - Stronach type II gravestone

Khalid Nabi Cemetery (, "Cemetery of the Prophet Khaled") is a cemetery in northeastern

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 ...

's Golestan province near the border with

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

, roughly northeast of

Gonbad-e Kavous Gonbad-e Kavus () is a city in the Central District (Gonbad-e Qavus County), Central District of Gonbad-e Kavus County, Golestan Province, Golestan Province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. The modern name, mea ...

city, in the Gokcheh Dagh hills of

Turkmen Sahra Turkmen Sahra () is a region in the northeast of Iran near the Caspian Sea, bordering Turkmenistan, the majority of whose inhabitants are ethnic Turkmen. The most important cities of Turkmen Sahra are Gonbad-e Kavus, Aqqala, Kalaleh, Maraveh ...

. It is mainly situated on a mountain ridge about 1 km distance from the mausoleum called “ Khaled Nabi” who according to oral tradition of the

Yomut The Yomut, also spelled Yomud or Iomud, are a Turkmen tribe who reside in Turkmenistan and Iran. There is a common belief about the origin of the name Yomut. It is said that a long time ago, Indigenous people settled by the Caspian Sea and we ...

Turkomans was a pre-Islamic prophet and whose mausoleum is visited by them for pilgrimage together with the neighbouring one of Ata Chofun ("Father Shepherd"), his son-in-law.

Description of the cemetery site

The cemetery was visited in 1979 and 1980 by the archeologist

David Stronach David Brian Stronach (10 June 1931 – 27 June 2020) was a Scottish archaeologist of ancient Iran and Iraq who became an expert on the city of Pasargadae and an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Born in June 1931, S ...

. He found over 600 standing stones which are spread out in several locations. About half of them are on the ridge which he calls "High Plateau". South and south-east of that are small groups of stones on several other ridges and hillocks. At some distance there is another group of perhaps 150 stones which are distributed over a wide area on the south side of the mountain.

The cemetery in popular perception

In popular media the stones are often described as examples of

phallic architecture Phallic architecture consciously or unconsciously creates a symbolic representation of the human penis. Buildings intentionally or unintentionally resembling the human penis are a source of amusement to locals and tourists in various places around ...

and a major tourist attraction. Touristic visitors often have perceived the cylindrical shafts with the thicker top as depictions of male phalli. This gave rise to popular guesses about pre-Islamic fertility cults as background to such perceived depictions. Consequently, the rounded type 2 stones were attributed to female forms and graves. Such descriptions have added to the popularity of the site for visitors from distant parts of Iran. The tomb is a religious pilgrimage place where women pray seeking boons for their welfare, by way of tying ribbons in nearby trees. The isolated cemetery has become popular tourist attraction in Iran and a source of amusement amongst visitors. The cemetery is now a national heritage site protected by the

Iranian government The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (), known simply as ''Nezam'' (), is the ruling State (polity), state and current political system in Iran, in power since the Iranian Revolution and fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. Its Const ...

References

External links

* {{Coord, 37.741747, 55.410983, display=title Cemeteries in Iran Buildings and structures in Golestan province Phallic monuments Tourist attractions in Golestan province

Description of the cemetery site

The cemetery in popular perception

See also

References

External links