Photos by Hamid Sadeghi, Mehr News Agency

Arg-e Bam (Bam citadel) was the largest adobe building in the world, located in Bam, a city in the Kerman Province of southeastern Iran. It is listed by UNESCO as part of the World Heritage Site “Bam and its Cultural Landscape.”

Photos by Hamid Sadeghi, Mehr News Agency

Arg-e Bam (Bam citadel) was the largest adobe building in the world, located in Bam, a city in the Kerman Province of southeastern Iran. It is listed by UNESCO as part of the World Heritage Site “Bam and its Cultural Landscape.”

This enormous citadel on the Silk Road was built before 500 BC and remained in use until 1850 AD. It is not known for certain why it was then abandoned. The entire building was a large fortress in whose heart the citadel itself was located, but because of the impressive look of the citadel, which forms the highest point, the entire fortress is named the Bam Citadel.

On December 26, 2003, the Citadel was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake, along with much of the rest of Bam and its environs. A few days after the earthquake, the then Iranian President Mohammad Khatami announced that the Citadel would be rebuilt. However, this architecture jewel has been ignored and neglected. The pace of reconstruction has been very slow; almost eight years after the quake, much works remains to be done.