Gonbad-e Kavus
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Gonbad-e Kavus

Gonbad-e Kavus

Turkmen-influenced Iranian city known for the soaring 11th-century Gonbad-e Qabus brick tower.

Gonbad-e Kavus is a city in northeastern Iran's Golestan province, close to the Turkmenistan border. The majority of the population is Turkmen, giving the city a distinctly different character from most Iranian cities. Its remarkable Gonbad-e Qabus Tower is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: an extraordinary fired-brick tomb built in 1006 AD, rising 53 metres on a 15-metre mound and considered by many engineers to be one of the most accomplished pre-modern brick structures ever built. The tower tapers to a conical point and is visible for kilometres across the flat plain.

Beyond the tower, the city is the gateway to the Turkmen Sahra — the grasslands stretching north to the border, home to the Akhal-Teke horses and the felt-rug Turkmen culture that gives this corner of Iran its distinct flavour. Day trips reach the strange standing-stone Khaled Nabi cemetery and the forests of Golestan National Park, one of the last refuges of the Persian leopard. The town itself is a working agricultural centre with little to detain a visitor beyond the tower, but the surrounding countryside is one of Iran's least-touristed corners.

Guide

Getting There

Gonbad-e Kavus is a long way from anywhere familiar. The nearest airport is Gorgan, about 90 km west, which has daily flights from Tehran. From Gorgan, regular buses and shared taxis reach Gonbad in around 90 minutes. Direct overnight buses also run from Tehran to Gonbad, taking around 8 hours.

If you are coming overland from Mashhad, allow most of a day; the road runs through some of the most underdeveloped parts of Iran but the scenery improves as you climb into the eastern Alborz mountains. The border with Turkmenistan is close, but the only open crossing in this area is at Inche Borun further west.

Guide

Things to Do

The reason to come to Gonbad-e Kavus is the tower. The brick monument that dominates the town's skyline is one of the most extraordinary medieval structures in Asia, and worth the long detour from Tehran or the Caspian coast. The surrounding Turkmen Sahra grasslands offer a glimpse of a culture and landscape almost entirely separate from the rest of Iran.