Visiting the 4000-year-old Behestan Castle next to Zanjan province and Behestan village - also known as fairy chimney

Hello dear friends, this is Behestan Castle
A very old and interesting castle, which is also known as Jeni Castle and fairy chimney

I finally got a chance to see this place up close and I am happy about it
During our trip there, my husband and I planned to visit this mysterious and spectacular place after many years.
And finally, one day we decided and drove there and traveled a really long and hard way to get there. We crossed the deserts and endured the sun and finally got our reward, which is to see the mysterious castle.

Behestan Castle or Old Fortress is located in Mahneshan city in Zanjan province, near Behestan village and on the side of Qezal Ozen river.

This place goes back to the period of the Medes
A unique castle which unfortunately is on the verge of destruction due to the lack of attention of the cultural heritage officials of the country and especially the province

And we also saw that river on its side, which was full of water

Mahenshan is one of the cities of Zanjan province, which is located 113 kilometers west of Zanjan.
This city is more than 4,000 years old and was built during the migration of Aryans.

One of the most important and special ancient attractions of Mahneshan is the Behestan Castle, which is located near the Ghazal Ozen River and a village called Behestan, which I have shown you from my travel photos here.

The shape of the chimney is, in fact, a kind of mushroom-shaped stone that was formed by erosion and remains a long and thin minaret on which another stone is placed, and in geological terms it is called "fairy chimney".

I was inside one of the rooms of the castle

Even though it was a bit difficult to enter the room due to its slope, I wanted to go up and take a closer look inside the rooms.

We had to drive a long way to get there and I must say that it was the longest way that we had spent to see the monument and we were driving in the hot weather and the scorching sun and it was really hard work but it was worth it.

Keeping in mind the original design, the builders of the castle dug the mountain and removed the soil and stones and created the rooms,

and to each number of rooms that were added, their communication ways to the complex were added in the form of corridors. Some locals call these works "ghost chimneys" because of their strange shape

The inner chambers were carved several thousand years ago and some places had niches and were very interesting

My painting of Behestan Castle

I personally like this place so much that I painted an oil painting of it more than 9 years ago and I will show it to you today in this post because it is precious to me.

And I am happy that I painted this panel at the time when I was mostly painting in oil

you can see this place on the map here

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Behestan+Castle/@36.6605123,47.7365707,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x401d6f9487226845:0xd97f3b1a6b9a266c!8m2!3d36.6605123!4d47.7365707!16s%2Fg%2F122k5sz7?entry=ttu