Bam and its Cultural Landscape

Bam rose from the desert on the strength of its qanats, underground irrigation channels of which the oasis preserves some of the earliest evidence in Iran. Founded in the Achaemenid period and at its height from the 7th to 11th centuries astride busy trade routes — famed for silk and cotton garments — the city is crowned by Arg-e Bam, the most representative fortified medieval town built in layered-mud vernacular technique. UNESCO inscribed Bam and its cultural landscape in 2004.