Name
Qal’eh Sardar / قلعه سردار
Map
Historical Period
Islamic
History and description
Qal’eh Sardar known also as Qal’eh Kharabeh is located 20 km northwest of Urmia, on the road between Urmia and Sero. Qal’eh Sardar is, in fact, the citadel of a much larger walled site. The present ruins are in the form of a square with fortified mud-brick walls on stone foundations. The east side of the citadel is destroyed while the western side, lying on an escarpment, is better preserved. Here, there are semi-circular towers along the mud-brick wall that is roughly 5 m wide. A small building, possibly the governor’s residence, is still visible inside the citadel. Based on the surface ceramics and extant architectural remains, Qal’eh Sardar is a late construction, the date of which may go back to the early Qajar or even the Safavid period. A few ceramic finds, however, indicate that the base of the mound may be much older going back to the fourth millennium B.C.
Archaeological Exploration
Qal’eh Sardar was first recorded by Wolfram Kleiss in 1969. He describes it as being a caravanserai. Then, the site was re-visited during an archaeological survey in northwestern Iran by an Italian team under the direction of Paolo Emilio Pecorella on behalf of the Institute of Mycenaean and Aegean-Anatolian Studies (now the Institute of the Ancient Mediterranean Studies), Italy’s National Research Council (CNR), in 1976.
Bibliography
Khanmohammadi, B. and E. Kharrazi, “The Study of Settlement Pattern in the Western Region of Lake Urmia,” Pajūheshhā-ye Zagros, vol. 1, No. 1, 1391/2002, p. 32, No. 14.
Kleiss, W., “Bericht uber zwei Erkundungsfahrten in Nordwest Iran,” Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, vol. 2, 1969, p. 61, fig. 66.
Pecorella, P. E. and M. Salvini, Tra lo Zagros e l’Urmia. Ricerche Storiche ed Archologiche Nell’Azerbaigian Iraniano, Rome, 1984, p. 143.
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