Tappe Mil

Bahram fire temple
Bahram fire temple
Religion
Affiliation	Zoroastrianism
Province	Tehran Province
Region	Iran
Location
Location	Rey, Iran
Municipality	Rey
State	Rey
Territory	Iran
Architecture
Style	Sasanian
Materials	Stone

Tappe Mil (Persian: تپه میل or the Fire Temple of Rey Persian: آتشکده ری, Fire Temple of Bahram Persian: آتشکده بهرام) is one of the historical religious places in Rey, Iran which has stood since the Sasanian Empire. It is named after Bahram V.^[1]

Geographical location

About 12 kilometers southeast of Ray city towards Varamin, on the top of a wide hill in the city of Ghalenou, there are the remains of a palace or fire temple, which is known as tappe mil "pillar Hill", and it is built on two big foundations, which looks like Mil from a distance. Mil (Persian: میل) is a word in Persian language, which in architecture refers to a special narrow and tall building that was common in the past.^[2]

Architecture

The direction of the building is east and west, and there was a iwan "porch" (Persian: ایوان) with four circular columns on the east front. A part of the fire temple was destroyed during Alexander's attack on Iran, and only a part of the chahartaq "four-arched" and beautiful structure of this fire temple remained in the form of two pillars.^[3]

Excavations and renovation

For the first time in 1913, the French "Jacques de Morgan" restored this fire temple and the surrounding structures. This building was explored and excavated in 1933 by an American archaeologist named Eric Schmidt, and recently Firouzeh Shibani from Iran followed up its excavation work.^[4]