Alamut Castle

Figure 1: Beautiful view from the path leading to Alamut

How to access: The region is located in a mountainous region between the provinces of Mazandaran, Tehran, the central part of Qazvin and Rudbar County.  The access roads in this region include Qazvin-Alamut asphalt road, Akbarabad dirt road and Bahramabad road, among which the Qazvin-Alamut road has the most traffic.

The entrance square of Qazvin province (Minodar square) is reached upon 135 kilometer on the Tehran-Qazvin highway. The signposts around this square will guide you to Alamut. Alamut with its natural attractions is a part of Iran's history and a source of information over the historical events of this country. This region is in the Alborz Mountain range and located in Qazvin province.

Perhaps the castles of Alamut and Lambsar in this region are the reason Alamut is so famous and plenty of people visit it. The region called Alamut in Qazvin province includes Western and Eastern parts located in the Alborz Mountain range in the northeast of the Qazvin County in Qazvin province, south of Mazandaran and Gilan, west of Taleqan and east of Rudbar. This region is mainly famous because of two castles namely Alamut and Lembsar. On your way to Qazvin, you should change the route to reach Alamut.

It takes about 2.5 hours of driving on this route to reach the historical castle of Alamut. The road and the mountain is so attractive and beautiful which probably makes you stop somewhere on the road to spend some time in the nature.

Figure 2: A beautiful view of Alamut in Iran

This winding road to Alamut passes through rural districts including five hundred small villages that you need to enter the side roads to visit them. Moalem Kalayeh is a large village on this route where many travelers visit to get their necessities.

Moalem Kalayeh village is thirty minutes from the Hassan Sabah castle. Alamut region is largely famous because of two historical castles located there, one of which dates back to the 3rd century (AH) and the other belongs to the Sassanid era. Hassan Sabah and his followers used these two castles as military bases.

Hasan Sabah, the founder of the Ismaili community, mainly resided in Alamut Castle. Located in the northeast of Qasr Khan village on the hills, this castle is about 2100 meters above sea level. In some historical resources the shape of the castle is mentioned to be like a sleeping camel. Alamut castle has been hard to access due to its steep slope, deep valleys and dangerous precipices surrounding it.

These reasons have turned the castle a suitable base to hide the followers of the Ismaili community from the enemies. The cliffs around Alamut are in gray and red colors, which makes the castle two times beautiful.

In 2013, the remnants of the castle were registered in the list of national works of Iran. Lambsar fortress was the second main base, after Alamut Castle, for the Ismailis. This fortress was built in the Sassanid era and is located in the west of Alamut.