Castles, Walls, Fortresses.The Sasanian Effort to Defend the Territory

Abstract

Defensive structures have been applied as the permanent elements of the Iranian urbanism, from the first phases of sedentism in the Neolithic period onwards. Following the Iranian tradition in architecture, Sasanian fortifications having local features were constructed in adaptation with the regional circumstances. Nevertheless, we can find some similarities in the components of the defensive installations. The defensive structures located within the Sasanian territory turned Iran into the unconquerable fortress providing Sasanians with military, political, cultural, and economic dominance over a vast area of the ancient world for more than four centuries.