Damghan

Dāmghān (Persian: دامغان) is a city in Semnan Province, Iran, from Tehran on the high-road to Meshed in Khorasan, at an elevation of . It has grown from a population of 34,057 (1986) to an estimated 72,098 (2007).The city trades in pistachios and paper almonds (kaghazi), with very thin shells, which are famous throughout the country.Damghan was an important city in the Middle Ages, capital of the province of Qumis (Qoomes). However few remnants of that time remain: only the ruined Tari-khaneh mosque with a number of massive columns and a few wood carvings and two minarets of the 11th century. A few miles south southwest of the city, are the remains of Hecatompylos, extending from Frat, south of Damghan, to nearly west. Damghan was destroyed by the Afghans in 1723. On an eminence in the western part of the city are the ruins of a large square citadel with a small white-washed building, called Molud Khaneh (the house of birth), in which Fath Ali Shah was born (1772). The Tari Khaneh (cA. 9th century), Possibly the oldest known mosque in Iran still stands in the city.
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