Persian Caravanserai
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How it came to be
Caravanserais were roadside inns that gave caravans, pilgrims and other travellers shelter, food and water. Their routes and locations were set by the presence of water, the lie of the land and security. The origins of Iran's caravanserais are traced to the Achaemenid era, and the World Heritage property brings together 54 of them in 24 provinces.
Robat-e Sharaf, between Merv and Nishapur, was built in the Seljuk period in the 12th century. Deyr-e Gachin, 80 km northeast of Qom, is called the 'mother of Iranian caravanserais'. The Safavid Shah Abbas I, who came to the throne in 1588, ordered a network of caravanserais across the country, and Mahyar was built under Shah Ismail I, who reigned from 1501 to 1524. Sa'd al-Saltaneh in Qazvin, built in the late 19th century, is the largest caravanserai in Iran.
Iran has more than 1,000 caravanserais, 700 of them registered as national heritage. The 54 chosen inns are spread across thousands of kilometres and show a wide range of architectural styles, adaptations to climate and building materials. They were inscribed together in September 2023 at the World Heritage Committee's session in Riyadh.
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