Azargoshnasp Fire Temple

Adur Gushnasp was the name of a Zoroastrian sacred fire of the highest grade, which served as one of the three most sacred fires of pre-Islamic Iran; the two others being the Adur Farnbag and Adur Burzen-Mihr [1]. Out of the three, Adur Gushnasp is the only fire whose temple structure has been discovered and for which archaeological, sigillographical, and textual evidence are all available [1]. The temple, constructed by the Sasanian kings, was located in the city of Shiz in Adurbadagan, now present-day Takht-e Soleymān in the West Azerbaijan province [1]. It served as a prominent site of pilgrimage [1]. The fire is not mentioned in early Sasanian sources, and archaeology suggests that the fire was first taken to the site in Adurbadagan in the late 4th or early 5th-century [1]. The fire temple was sacked in 623/4 by Heraclius during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 [1]. The fire continued to burn for a long period in the Islamic era, but persecution eventually increased, and by the late 10th-century, or early 11th-century, the fire had most likely been quenched [1].