Resket Tower

Bavandids ruled in Mazandaran and they governed the whole Mazandaran from the time of Sassanid empire to some centuries after the Arab conquest. Two towers of Resket and Lajin are the memorial of them. Some believe that these towers had been the mausoleums of their kings.

It is located about 40 kilometers southeast of Sari, after two ways of Kiasar and the dam of Soleiman Tangeh, in Dodangeh county. Here is the Resket village, a good weather and beautiful village in which Resket tower is placed.

The first mention to this tower has been found in the writings of Andre Godard, the French Iranologist. This tower has a round plan and it was built over a steep slope. In order to build the tower on a flat ground, the architects first prepared a mountain rock and then erected the brick bench over it so that one side of the tower is at the same level with the ground and the other side is slightly upper. The stone bench is two meters and a half of height and the height of the building is nine meters from the bench to the dome. The first decorations outside the building are seen in the height of six meters as a brick line. The decorations are brick, stucco and brick caulking.  

The inner diameter of the building is 2.28 meters and the external diameter is 3.6 meters and the thickness of the body is 1.33 meters. The construction materials are brick and plaster. Brick muqarnas covered with plaster is seen in this building that has been ruined due to the climatic factors. It has a conical dome and, according to Andre Godard, the current shell of this dome had been originally the internal shell and its external dome has been destroyed over time.

the building has an eastern entrance that is placed between two beautiful nested brick blind arcade that have picturesque muqarnas and a Kufic and Pahlavi inscription. The background of the inscription is azure. The first three lines and a half of the fourth one were written by Kufic script and the other half-line is by Pahlavi or the same Middle Persian script. In spite of much damage, the Kufic inscription is still readable and on some part of which the al-Tawḥīd Surah and the verse “کل نفس ذائقه الموت” is carved.

This building was registered as one of the National Heritages of Iran in 1312 SH, with No. 193. The restoration project lasted from 1359 SH to 1367 SH.