SeriesThis is a follow-up to my aborted attempt to visit Alamut on Dec 3 2003.
Three days before I was to leave Iran, the weather suddenly cleared up. I had been watching for this and made sudden preparations for another visit to Alamut. At about the same time, I got an email from my friend Fereshteh who was also eager to visit the castle of the assassins. At last, it seems that my luck is changing!
We set out early in the morning by bus for Qazvin, and met Karim, our guide and driver, at the Iran Hotel. He was to take us by Land Rover to Alamut, a secluded valley deep in the Alborz mountain — a 2 hour ride along a well paved road (as it turned out a taxi would have been enough to get there).
What is known as Alamut is actually a valley with several villages and no less than 7 castles which were all controlled by Hassan Sabbah and his men. The term citadel might be a more accurate description than castle, as these are not very far from the villages, perched on high peaks in the surrounding mountains. When the villages were under attack their inhabitants went to seek protection within these fortresses. The castles are about one day walking distance apart, and at the time of Hassan Sabbah there was an array of watch towers which were also used to relay messages. They used an elaborate code, spelled out with arrows whose tip was set on fire. According to our local guide, they could relay a message between the two furthest castles in less than 15 minutes.
We decided to go visit the castle of Lambesar near the village of Razmian. It is the castle that gave most trouble to the hordes of Mongols, the last one to fall; but also the best preserved one. The fortress was set on the top of a mountain surrounded by steep cliffs on all but one side, on top of which a high wall was built. From up there you could see anyone trying to approach the castle. The position of the castle was perfect, except for one detail: it had no well. Several deep underground cisterns were built, and an elaborate system of channels collected rainwater from the mountainside and directed it to the cisterns. After several months of siege, the Mongols managed to poison the water supply of the fortress and this is how they were able to finally take the castle.
Today, there is not much to see on the site; but if you are sensitive to the perfume of history Alamut is an incredible place. Its is possible to envision how the surrounding wall was towering over the steep cliffs. In places, just by scratching the ground a bit, you can find small pieces of charcoaled wood. According to our guide, these are the leftovers from the great destruction that took place here. I have a hard time imagining that I am looking at charcoaled wood from the Mongols times, over 800 years old. At first I though it more likely to be from a small fire visitors lit a several years ago; but then I decided to take the Mongol fire story at face value, because it was certainly consistent with the feeling of great destruction that one gets standing here.
The ground is littered with pieces of pottery, some as large as both my hands side by side. Unfortunately it is obvious that looters are exploring the site quite rigorously. There are many holes in the ground, some looking quite recent and according to our guide you can buy the unearthed artefacts in the nearby villages. Sadly, the government is not doing anything to protect the site, because the Ismailis and Nizaris are considered to be heretics according to modern Islamic doctrine. Much the same happened in Persepolis, which explains why so many artifacts found their way to Le Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London.
Alamut is clearly not visited by a great many tourists yet, otherwise there would be much less traces of the past. But the setting is quite extraordinary, a great spot for a long trek: it's a 2 day walk to Caspian Sea. Something I would love to do on a future visit here...
As I write this clouds have returned, rain and snow are not far behind... The castle in the mountains is no doubt going to be burried in snow in the next few days. I think that this was a unique opportunity to go visit Alamut, and the timing was perfect. The next opportunity for anyone to go will very likely be next spring.