The internet, aware that I am a fan of cool historic sites, recently tossed me this image of a place identified as Chehel Burj. I thought, that looks like a place I might want to write a post about, so I did a search.
And found this place. This was at an official and learned-looking site called the
Helmand-Sistan Project. They also tell us this:
The site is an extensive complex of at least five large buildings. Though the standing buildings probably date to Ghaznavid times in the 11th century, ceramic evidence suggests they were first built in the early centuries CE. Two large fortresses—one square and approximately 170 m on each side, the other round and 85 m in diameter—are the most prominent buildings in the complex. Each has a courtyard in the center and rows of rooms around the edges, mostly two stories. The name chehel burj, “forty towers,” probably was used to describe the large square fortress, though it has 87 towers around the exterior. Because of its impressive size and extensive preservation, this site had been visited by previous researchers and was only quickly examined by our team.
The Helmand-Sistan Project also offers us this overhead view:
Now, I don't know about you, but this does not look at all like the fortress I started searching for. Among other things, is in the middle of an extensive plain, while our first fortress is in a mountain valley.
Another view of the first fortress.
So, a puzzle. While I could only find text about the square fort with 83 towers, outside that one site I could only find images of a completely different place.
This video tells us that this Chehel Burj also does not have forty towers. In fact, its authors assert, it may once have looked like this and had 300 towers. I have to say, though, that this video does not really inspire confidence, so I wouldn't necessarily believe that. This Chehel-Burj is in Bamyan province, which is in central Afghanistan a long way from Sistan and Helmand, which are in the southwestern corner.
This video reports that the site was founded in the early centuries CE, but most of the construction may date to the 6th century by the Ghurid Dynasty. But that has to be wrong, because the
Ghurid Dynasty doesn't seem to have existed until after 750 AD, and its great period was after 1175. I am guessing that the main period of this fortress's construction was medieval, when the Ghurids, Ghaznavids, and Seljuk Turks were vying for dominance in the region. So the same period as the other Chehel Burj.
Google Earth, incidentally, also locates Chehel Burj at the central Afghan site that is the focus of our video.
So I am going to have to conclude that there are at least two places in Afghanistan called Chehel Burj. Since neither one has or ever had forty towers, I am also going to guess that this is a traditional term for "big fortress", or else that in Pashto "forty" is a way of saying "a lot."
3 comments:
Forty is indeed a common number in that part of the world used to indicate "a great many" of something. Think of it the way we in the West might euphemistically say "Hundred"-something with meaning it literally. [See also "The Forty Thieves", "Forty Days and Forty Nights", etc.]
You are also entirely correct on the bizarre "6th century" date, and your guess that it is actually medieval - I'm no expert, but the design of the stonework looks to be from around the 1200s, which would fit with the Ghorid / Ghurid connection (possibly even a bit after the fall of the actual dynasty itself in 1215.)
The "6th century" date might be a conflation with another identically (or even just similarly) named site. Just as "forty towers" is a common epithet for sites with many towers, there's a related term of "chehel dokhtar" - meaning "forty daughters / forty girls".
There's an old legend about a Samanid princess who had to flee from an invading army, and traveled with her 39 female companions, evading their enemies and ultimately disappearing without a trace - the sort of convenient mystery people love in their romantic tales of this sort.
You will find an absurd number of variations of the story, and an equally absurd number of different towers, forts, ruins, etc, all named "chehel dokhtar", found across a massive area of land stretching from Anatolia to the Himalayas. Many offer completely impossible dates for the legend's events - I found references to both the early 7th century, and the late 6th century, despite the fact that the Samanids only arose in the early 9th century. In my experience, Iranian sources love to inflate the ages of sites they view as representing the glory of their own past.
Typo - "without meaning it literally."
Parallel to the Forty Thieves is excellent, thanks.
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