Terbal

Minar

منار
The remaining core of the structure. The stairs and the dome are lost.
Minar Shown within Iran
Alternate name	Terbal, Minaret
Location	Gōr, Ardashir-Khwarrah, Pars, Sassanian Empire (near modern Firuzabad, Fars Province, Iran)
Coordinates	28°51′10.3″N 52°31′56.7″E / 28.852861°N 52.532417°E / 28.852861; 52.532417Coordinates: 28°51′10.3″N 52°31′56.7″E / 28.852861°N 52.532417°E / 28.852861; 52.532417
Length	9 m 20 m if the ruined stairs and outer wall are considered
Height	30+ m
History
Builder	Ardashir I
Material	granite-mortar-masonry
Cultures	Sassanian Persia
Site notes
Condition	ruined
Architecture
Architectural styles	Sassanian

The Minar (Persian: منار‎‎, lit. "pillar") or Minaret (مناره), mentioned in medieval Arabic Islamic sources as Terbal (طربال Ṭirbāl), was a unique, spiral, tower-like structure built in the centre of the Sassanian circular city of Gōr (modern Firuzabad). Several theories have been proposed for its purpose. Only the core of the structure remains today.

Ardashir I's new city of Gor had a circular plan with the official buildings located at the centre of an inner circle 450 m in radius. The tower-like structure of Terbal was located at the very centre of this circle. Together with Takht-e Neshin, these are the only structures of the city that are made of granite-mortar-masonry. According to Iranica, these two structures may have been confused in medieval Islamic sources, and it is unclear that the names Aywān kiyākhurra (ایوان کیاخوره) (Istakhri), Gunbad-i Kīrmān (or Gīrmān; گنبد گیرمان) and Īrān Garda/Girda (ایران گرده) (Ibn al-Balkhi) mentioned in these sources refer to which structure. Terbal was a 9 m square structure with more than 30 m high and spiral in design. It was the core of a stair-tower, and was compared by Ibn Hawqal to a similar edifice at Balkh (a reference to a Buddhist stupa, or possibly a ziggurat). With the width of the destroyed stairs and outer walls added, its actual width is estimated to be about 20 m. The remaining structure is hollow, according to the Qajar period writer Forsat-od-Dowleh Shirazi.

Drawing by Eugène Flandin, who (mistakenly) called the structure "the Fire temple (Ateshgah) of Firuzabad"