The Arg-e Bam  located in the city of Bam, Kerman

The Arg-e Bam  located in the city of Bam, Kerman Province of southeastern Iran, is the largest adobe building in the world. The entire building was a large fortress containing the citadel, but because the citadel dominates the ruins, the entire fortress is now named Bam Citadel. History :- There is no precise archaeological dating of the buildings of the Citadel of Bam. However, through historic sources and ancient texts, the first human settlement in the area can be traced back to the fort built by the Achaemenians, around 579–323 BC. Some of the citadel’s features, such as its establishment on a platform combining a natural hilltop and a manmade terrace, have been compared by archaeologists to the Achaemenian model of Persepolis. During the Parthian rule, the fort was expanded and became Arg-e-Bam, the Citadel of Bam. A comparative study, titled “Bam and a Brief History of Urban Settlement and Planning in Iran”, concluded that the essential core of the city of Bam and the Governor’s section were built during the Parthian era. Under the Sassanids, the castle was seized by Ardeshir Babakan. New fortifications and walls were constructed between 224 and 637 AD. In 645 AD, the Kerman region was conquered by the Arabs and Arg-e-Bam probably suffered damage during the war. One of the Arab commanders established the Al Rasoul mosque, one of the first mosques built in Iran in the early Islamic era. In 656 AD, the Khawarij, a group of Muslims defeated by Ali, escaped to Kerman and Bam where they settled in the Arg-e-Bam. In 869 AD, Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar who was fighting the Abbasids, defeated the Khawarij and took over Arg-e-Bam. It then became his permanent base camp. The name of Bam is mentioned for the first time by Islamic writers in the 10th century. According to these authors, Bam was then a well established market place surrounded by a wide agricultural area. The city was famous for its elegant and tasteful cotton fabrics, its supposedly impregnable fortress, its busy bazaars, and its palm trees. Photographer unknown