Maranjob's Caravansary

Maranjob Caravansary which was built in 1012 A.H at a Silk Road detour is one of these golden-age structures. It is located in a 50-kilometer distance of Aran Bidgol city beside the Salt Lake and huge dunes.

==========================================Caravansaries=============================================

A 'caravan' in Persian means a group of travelers or merchants banded together and organized for mutual assistance and defense while traveling through unsettled or hostile country. Caravan trade is associated with the history of Iran and the Middle East as far back as the records of ancient civilizations extend and seems to have been well developed before maritime commerce began.

It is evident that all trade from one fertile area to another in this region had to be organized from the first, since long distances of desert trail separated settled parts and since local governments could not guarantee protection against tribes eager to loot and pillage. Such wares as jewels, spices, perfumes, dyes, metals, rare woods, ivory, oils, and textiles (chiefly silk) are associated with the trade. Camels were the main catties from Egypt and Iran to Mesopotamia and throughout the Arabian Peninsula. They were also introduced into North Africa and Sahara region in the 3rd century AD. Donkeys were used in Iran and Asia Minor. Trade naturally prospered in the period of great empires, when the caravan routes could be controlled and protected; and it was to secure control of such routes that many wars were fought and conquests made in the ancient times.

Iranian Empire and later governments, religious foundations, merchants' guilds, as well as the local notables and rulers provided for the establishment of caravansaries, or inns, for the accommodation of travelers along the way. Such improvements facilitated the movement of troops to protect the routes. Cities rose and fell in ancient times in proportion to the rise and fall in the trade of the caravan routes upon which they were located. Most of these are derelict today. But, even as ruins, ;they are readily recognizable, invariably built round a square -in fact like the courtyard of a mosque on the four-ivan plan. Architecturally, the simple design of Iran's caravansaries provided security and privacy for the traveler, protection for the animals, and through the extra story over the arch of the main entrance facing the highroad, control over admissions. According to A U Pope, never was the Persian facility for practical planning better demonstrated. In large towns caravansary, bazaar, and mosque were frequently contiguous. The grandest and remotest caravansaries often housed a mosque of their own within their precincts.

When you inquire the age of a caravansary in modern Iran, you are generally told that it dates from the time of Shah Abbas. This is a deceptive generalization and a term applied indiscriminately to all caravansaries built between the late 16th- 19th centuries AD. They were for the most part in operation until the late 19th century, and it is only since the arrival of the motor car that they have fallen into decay.