Noush Abad

“a three-story underground city, recently unearthed in central Iran, used to function as a collective shelter for its residents in wake of relentless invasions…

““The city is built according to a systematically laid-out plan and it is likely all the residents had a hand in building it, since it seems a gargantuan task to me,” said Ehsan Zera’at, architecture scholar.

Archeologists have so far dug out several earthenware vessels and two fat-burning lanterns. The potteries date from the Sassanid dynasty (226-651) to Safavid era (1501-1722), said Sadat, a graduate archeology student, adding, “The city has been built during the Sassanid era and has been dwelled and used till the Safavid period, at most.”

Next year the research team intends to ask sociologists and anthropologists for help to determine the lifestyle of the inhabitants.

Kashan is an oasis city lying in a desert at the eastern foot of the Central Iranian Range. Kashan was earlier an important station on an important caravan route between Kerman and Isfahan. Kashan has several ancient monuments. Most famous are the mausoleum of Shah Abbas 1, the 12th century Friday Mosque and the Safavid royal buildings southwest of the city centre. “—from http://www.payvand.com