Tous city | Hometown of many cultivated Iranians

Tous city | Hometown of many cultivated Iranians

Tous is an ancient and well-known city in Khorasan Razavi province, northwest of Mashhad city. Since Tous is located near Mashhad where the holy shrine of Imam Reza (Shia’s 8th Imam) is located, it hosts many visitors. The cultural landscape of Tous was inscribed in the UNESCO’s World Heritage List and has attractions such as: Tomb of Ferdowsi, Harouniyeh Dome or the Tomb of Imam Mohammad Ghazali, The Tomb of Mehdi Akhavan Sales, Tous citadel and the ancient walls of the city and a river named Kashfrud.

The Tomb of Ferdowsi

Abolghasem Ferdowsi is a well-known Iranian poet, who is famous for his book of national epic poems named Shahnameh. He spent all of his financial gathered sources during 30 years for composing epic stories demonstrating Iran’s history. He played a significance rule in protecting Persian language, since it was prohibited to write and compose in Persian when Arabs occupied Iran. Ferdowsi is also known as Hakim-e-Sokhan (the philosopher of speech).

The Tomb of Ferdowsi

The architecture of Ferdowsi’s Tomb

Being one of the most beautiful tombs of Iran, Ferdowsi tomb has a rectangular base, surrounded by a large garden with a surface area of 6 hectares. The garden has the Persian style of gardening known as Chahar bagh (4 gardens). The tomb consists of three parts: a marble stone located on a marble platform, a marble square hall, which has four tall columns on its four corners and a marble staircase leads to a chamber that has poems of Ferdowsi carved on it.

There is a nice pool in front of the tomb with three rows of fountains, each row has 10 fountains decorated by lotus, representing the thirty years of his effort for composing Shahnameh. In addition, there is a statute of Ferdowsi in this garden and the tomb of the famous poet Mehdi Akhavan Sales.

The architecture of Ferdowsi’s Tomb

Harouniyeh Tomb (the tomb of Imam Mohammad Ghazali)

It is a brick made, square shaped structure.the Monument’s interior part has an entrance to porch, four alcoves, a dome chamber and three subsidiary rooms. A small memorial stone of Abu Mohammad al-Ghazali is located in the outer section. There is a large garden in front of the porch. The exact date of its construction and its function are unclear. Some people think it was a monastery, some think it was a place for Ghazali teachings (since he was a great Sufi) and other think it was the prison of Haroun al-Rashid, the 5^th Abbasi Caliph.

The architecture of Ferdowsi’s Tomb

Tous citadel and the ancient walls of the city

Three protecting walls and a moat surround the ancient citadel of Tous. From the first wall a barely visible line of a short wall has remained. The second wall has two gates and eight towers in the corners. The third wall which was the main wall of the castle is made of sun dried bricks, and there are some remains of collapsed buildings between the 2^nd and the 3^rd wall.

* Written by  Arefeh Firouzan.

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