Gor (Firuzabad) is a great circular city built by the founder of the Sassanian dynasty, King Ardashir 1. Huge clay double ramparts forming a perfect circle surrounded the city.
In it were four main gates from which led the main throroughfares dividing the city into four equal sections. Where they crossed at the centre there was a square tower called a minar, either a political symbol of the king's power and authority or a religious building at the summit of which a sacred fire burned.
Ardashir also had a massive palace built to the north of the city. The three halls here are the earliest known examples of square buildings roofed with circular domes using squinches (half domes built across the corners to give an octagon on which to construct the roof dome).
The city, which was known as 'Ardashir Khurrah' - 'the Glory of Ardashir', may have been built to celebrate Ardashir's victory over the Parthian king Artabanus V in AD 226.
Alternatively, its construction may have been the decisive factor in provoking the conflict between these two rival kings. Whatever the case may be, the city is a physical testimony to the transfer of power in Persia from the Parthian dynasty to the Sassanians.
