The ancient site of Vigol

This site is located 4 kilometers away from the southwest of Aran and Bidgol. With an area of about 450 hectares, Vigol is one of the biggest and most important sites of Isfahan province. The most significant architectural structures are 2 mud-brick castles on the west and east of the central part, a mud-brick fire temple and architectural structures in form of parallel or perpendicular walls that can be found scattered all over the area. Among the movable objects found from the site, a considerable amount of potsherds that can be seen sporadically or sometimes accumulated in the area, are the most important ones. Although some evidence related to the Bronize Age and the Parthian Empire has been identified, it was during the Sassanid era that Vigol grew bigger and reached the standards of a major city. With the rise of Islam, particullarly in the 9th and 10th century AD, Vigor’s glory days was over, later giving its place to Kashan in the southwest. Then from 11 to 14th century AD, under the names of “Haraskan” and “Vigol” (Vegol, Sall, Halll), this site became one of the villages of Kashan. In spite of Malik Seljuq’s invasion (Masud-ibn Mohamad- ibn Malek- shah: 1134-1152 AD) in 1138 AD, which irrecoverably damaged the city, Vigol continued to exist untill the 14th century AD. Since that time due to some reasons such as drought, changing water sources and consequently shifting sands, Vigol was abandoned and then replaced by the current city of Aran and Bidgol. In order to know the transitional period of architecture and urban development from the Sassanid era to the Islamic period, Vigol is a significant site. However, this cultural sequence can also be obtained through potteries found there.

Western castle

This castle is located in the westernmost of Vigol. Its trapezoid-shaped structure is built in accordance with the geographical directions of northwest-southeast. The entrance to this structure is placed on the eastern half of the southern side. The length of the castle is 100 meters and the widest side, which is placed on the east. is 60 meters. The construction material of the inner layers is usually mud-brick and the separating structures that the most important ones are peripheral walls, have been built by cob wall (čine). The significant 2-part structure of this castle indicates that the western castle used to be an important urban and sovereignty part of the Vigol in its lifetime. This structure clearly includes one “citadel” in the western half and one small “downtown” (Sharistan) in the east. It should be mentioned that These two structures are separated by a northern-southern fort and some parts of the citadel had 2 stories. The normal size of the mud-brick of this castle is 40x40x10 which is known as one of the common materials of the Sassanid era. Potsherds in and around the castle indicate that potteries must have been used since the Sassanid era untill the middle of the Islamic medieval centuries. The ditch all-round the castle and the ‘loess’ accumulating around it, have formed a structure similar to What Al-Maqdisi pointed out about the city of “Haraskan”.

Fire temple

This ructure is 80 meters away from the southeast of the western castle. With an identified area of 110 meters which belongs to the Sassanid era, this structure was found during an archaeological excava tion. The plan of this fire temple consists of a central dome which like the famous plan of Sassanid fire temples, has a Chaharsofeh (four ivan). According to this plan each Sofeh is connected to a corridor which goes around the fire temple through a doorway. Dado of the inner pillars of the dome is decorated by ocher which beautifies the interior of this building without using plasterwork. Right in the center of the dome, there is a fire- place now nothing left of it but the underneath platform and its plinth. This plinth has a structure out of stucco which is reinforced by gravels and cob- biestone. Spoon-shaped flutes of the fireplace and the order of its con- struction is similar to some remarkable fireplaces of Iran like Tooran Tepe in Gorgan province, Kaka village of Gonbad-e Kavoos, Vezniar fire temple in Roomshkan of Lorestan province, Chamnameshet in Dareh Shahr of illam province, Bandian-e Dargaz, Emamzadeh Muhammad Vali Beig Dargaz, Emamzadeh Hasel Alamarvdasht in Lamerd of Fars province, Shian and Palang-Gard and Chahartaghi-e Milge in Islamabad of Kermanshah province. To these names could be added some fire temples and some remarkable plinths related to the Sassanid era in the coastal part of the Persian Gulf. In the northern part of the dome, there is a platform which seems to be a place for gifts. Although all the structures of the architecture and the spatial features of the fire temple have not been explored or identified yet, the evidence suggests the existence of a fire temple which dates back to the Sassanid era. As a result, this fire temple is an important architectural feature of Iran’s history, especially for the central regions. By the beginning of the Islamic period which led the Iranians to a new religion, people abandoned this fire temple for a long time. Then with the least destruction and without making big structural changes and only by blocking some entrances, the fire temple was reused. It seems that this fire temple is a part of a big complex with a nitual function that further archaeological studies will give us more infor- mation.

Eastern castle

This castle is located in the eastern half of the ancient site of Vigol and it is 700 meters away from the westem castle on the east. It is a rectan gle-shaped structure 60 meters in length and 53 meters in width. Unlike the westem castle, its geographical direction is north-east to south-west Although cob wall is used for separating structures, the main building material of this castle is mud-brick with 2 different sizes; one is 40×۴۰×۱۰, and the other 30×۳۰×۶-۷. These sizes, along with pot- sherds that can be found all over the castle, suggesting that this struc ture lasted from the Sassanid era until the medieval centuries of the Islamic period. In order to reinforce the castle, a fortified tower is built at each comer of it. In contrast with the western castle, the 2-part politi- cal-social structure can’t be seen here; but some of the parts have 2 stories (Oshkub). A ditch as well as a significant amount of loess sur- rounding the castle.

Scattered architectural structures

Apart from the monuments that we have just mentioned, some sporadic architectural remains, which seem to be the evidence of a prominent architectural site, can be seen all over the Vigol’s area. The length of these structures has been destroyed due to human and natural erosion or even buried under loess. These structures consist of parallel, orthogo nal and intersecting walls. Some of those remains look like the overall walls of a greater architectural unit and some might be the remains of a pathway that used to be one of the most important features of urban civi- lization. Unlike the other parts of the site, these scattered architectural structures can be found easily on the surface of southern and western parts, which obviously results from Vigol’s separation from the eastern sandy region of Aran and Bidgol. Potsherds found around these scat- tered structures suggest that their historical sequence coincides with the entire site and its prominent architectural structures; which means not only these structures date back to the Sassanid era but also they lasted fill the middle of the Tstamic medieval period.