Takht-e Soleyman: The Lost Fire of the Persian Kings

Takht-e Soleyman held the holiest fire of the Persian kings for roughly six centuries, and no one can prove where that fire went. The archaeologist who dug the site wrote that it is not clear when the sanctuary was given up, or whether the faithful carried the flame away. This film follows that fire across a hill built by water, a Byzantine army, an Arab conquest, a Mongol palace, and a dig that stopped in 1978. Along the way it answers a smaller question that turns out to matter: why does this hill carry the name of a Hebrew king when the record shows no link to him? Takht-e Soleyman sits in West Azerbaijan province in northwestern Iran. Its lake is fed by a warm spring, and the calcium in the water has been laying down stone for so long that the lake built the platform it sits on. In the Sasanian era the site housed Adur Gushnasp, one of the three great sacred fires of ancient Iran, and it is the only one of the three whose temple has ever been found. Clay seals bearing the title of the fire's high priest are what tied the hill to it. What follows is what the evidence supports, and where scholars disagree, we say so. One scholar concludes the fire most likely went out around the year one thousand. The excavation record says the ground cannot prove when or how the sanctuary ended. The name Throne of Solomon appears in the written record only after the Timurid conquest, about a thousand years after the fire arrived, so the folklore came last. Stories of a city of gold beneath the lake and demons locked in the crater are local tradition, and we label them that way on screen. Who oversees it now: Takht-e Soleyman is a UNESCO World Heritage property, inscribed in 2003. It is owned by the Government of Iran and managed by the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization. People live in the surrounding district today. It is not a lost place and it is not forbidden. The mystery is in the evidence, not in a locked gate. Chapters: 00:00 - The fire nobody can find 00:27 - A sacred fire and a missing end date 01:24 - A lake that built its own hill 03:26 - The fire arrives and the king takes the easy road 05:47 - Heraclius reaches the fire 07:20 - A treaty keeps the fire burning 08:46 - A Mongol palace on top of the fire 10:19 - The Solomon name that arrived a thousand years late 10:50 - Treasure hunters and a dig that stopped 12:33 - What the evidence says about the fire Sources used in this film: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Takht-e Soleyman: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1077/ UNESCO nomination file: https://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/1077.pdf Encyclopaedia Iranica, Takht-e Solayman (Dietrich Huff): https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/takt-e-solayman/ Adur Gushnasp, summarizing Mary Boyce and others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adur_Gushnasp Britannica, Takht-e Soleyman: https://www.britannica.com/place/Takht-e-Soleyman-ancient-city-Iran Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Summer Palace Takht-e Soleyman project: https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/museum-fuer-islamische-kunst/collection-research/research-cooperation/summer-palace-takht-e-soleyman/ Uppsala University, Gustavianum: https://www.uu.se/en/gustavianum/about-the-museum/our-collections/the-historical-collections/classical-archaeology/takht-e-soleyman Some fires burn for centuries and leave no ash to read. This one left a hill, a lake, and a question the ground has not yet answered. Subscribe to Unseen Earth, and come with us to the places where the map runs out. #TakhtESoleyman #Iran #UnseenEarth #Documentary #History #Archaeology