Firuzabad

Ardashir I, founder of the Sassanid dynasty, built a new city here in the third century AD called Gor, laid out as a perfect circle two kilometres across, divided into twenty radial sectors, with a tall stone tower at the exact centre, and the circular plan is still legible on the ground and from the air. Outside it stands the Palace of Ardashir, a large building of rubble and mortar beside a spring-fed pool, whose three domed halls are built on squinches, the arch across a corner that allows a round dome over a square room, and these are generally regarded as the earliest surviving examples of that solution, which went on to shape Islamic architecture. A second fortress, Qale Dokhtar, sits on a crag in the gorge above.

What you actually see

• A perfectly circular city plan - two kilometres across, still readable.
• The Palace of Ardashir - domes on squinches beside a spring-fed pool.
• Qale Dokhtar - a fortress on a crag in the gorge above the road.
• The central tower - the marker at the exact centre of the circle.

When to go

March to May and October to November; summer here is fierce. Half a day for the palace, the city and the fortress. Mornings for the climb to Qale Dokhtar, which is steep.

Honest expectations

Qale Dokhtar requires a steep exposed climb of about half an hour. The circular city is best appreciated from height or a plan; on the ground it is a low bank. Facilities are minimal. Roads from Shiraz are winding and slow.

Nearby

Bishapur is north-west; Shiraz lies north.