Gonbad-e Qabus Tower

Gonbad-e Qabus is one of the most extraordinary medieval buildings in Asia. The cylindrical brick tower rises 53 metres on a 15-metre artificial mound, tapers to a sharp conical roof, and is reinforced by ten triangular flanges that run from base to top. It was built in 1006 AD as a tomb for the Ziyarid prince Qabus, and it has been pulling visitors across the Turkmen steppe ever since — visible for tens of kilometres across the flat plain on a clear day.

The tower was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012. Engineers have studied it for what it tells about Persian brick architecture; the geometry of the flanges and the proportions of the conical cap are still cited as a masterclass in pre-modern structural design. There is a small park and modest interpretive centre at its base. Climb the hill, walk a slow circle around the tower, and notice how the angle of the flanges changes the silhouette as you move.

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The tower was built in 1006 AD as a tomb for Qabus ibn Wushmagir, the Ziyarid ruler of the region. A medieval inscription claims his body was suspended inside a glass coffin under the conical roof so that the rising sun would strike it on the spring equinox. The coffin and the body are long gone, but the tower's astonishing structural achievement remains intact: it has stood for more than a thousand years on a foundation of nothing more than fired bricks and mortar.

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