Noushijan is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

in the west of Iran near Malayer. According to excavations from this site this area was not inhabited earlier than 800 B.C.. The discovered features of this Tappe are as follows: * a building in the west of the Tappe (the first fire temple) * a columned hall (

Apadana Apadana (, or ) is a large hypostyle hall in Persepolis, Iran. It belongs to the oldest building phase of the city of Persepolis, in the first half of the 5th century BC, as part of the original design by Darius I, Darius the Great. Its cons ...

) * a central temple (the second temple) * rooms and storerooms * a tunnel * a

rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * LAPD Rampart Division, a division of the Los Angeles Police Department ** Rampart scandal, a blanket ter ...

Building in the west of Tappe

According to the plan of the discovered building and according to the archaeological and architectural investigations, the building was built before Apadana. The entrance of the building is in its eastern side like a central temple. It has two connected spaces. The inner space of the building is rectangular and its entrance is in the neighboring room. The rest of a coal bowl in the southern side of the main room proves, that the fire ceremony was carried out (secretly). It can be suggested that the first fire temple was in a covered space in Noushijan Tappe and the ceremony had a connection with the developing religious ceremony in the

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

era. On the southern and western wall, there are ruins of two niches with egg-shaped vaults.

Columned hall

The hall was built on an

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

platform. Its foundation is from

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

mortar. The hall is 20 m long and 15 m wide. Its eastern side is not completely right-angled. The central space of Apadana has three column rows. Each row has four columns. The space has twelve columns that carried the weight of ceiling. The columns were wooden. Each column had a diameter of 25 cm. The eastern wall has two decorative niches; on the western side there are no decorations. Under the ceiling, there are windows that provide enough light for the space.

Main temple

The main temple is an adobe semicircular octagon. This building is one of the most valuable median buildings.

Room and storerooms

The second important building in Noushijan are the rooms and storerooms. The castle includes an enclosure wall, towers and four weapon storerooms. It is totally 25 m long and 22 m wide. The outer walls have 6 towers in the width and 7 towers in the length. The only entrance is in the middle of the eastern wall.

Tunnel

In the northern part of Apadana, there is an artificial cellarlike pit that leads to a

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in the depth of 3 m. This pit has stairs. Its height is 170 cm and its width is 180 cm. According to its form, the tunnel has never reached the end and because of unknown reasons was abandoned as incomplete. The tunnel was built in the last phase of region's inhabitation.

Rampart

In the southern and eastern part of the room and storerooms there is a rampart that encloses the buildings in the eastern part with a particular curve.

References

{{Authority control Fire temples in Iran Castles in Iran Medes castles Archaeological sites in Iran Hamadan province Buildings and structures on the Iran National Heritage List