TEHRAN – More than 1,700 caravanserais dating from the Sassanid to the Qajar periods remain across Iran, with about 60% of them still active or capable of restoration, a university researcher said.

Hassan Bastanirad, a professor at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and head of the university’s Silk Road Research Center, told ISNA that only a small portion of these roadside inns have fallen into ruin. “The majority are restorable and can be reused,” he said.

Bastanirad said the caravanserais, some of which stand on the foundations of earlier structures, reflect architectural continuity across centuries. “Their origins date back to the Sasanian era and continued until the late Qajar period,” he said, citing the stone-made Ahovan caravanserai in Semnan province as an example of a later structure built on the side of a ruined one.

He remined that 54 Iranian caravanserais have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list as a serial property known as “The Persian Caravanserai.” Six of these are located in Semnan province.

Bastanirad said Iran’s cultural heritage along the Silk Road extends beyond caravanserais. “We also have a significant collection of historical bridges, many of which still stand in provinces such as Lorestan,” he said.

Caravanserais, once located along trade and pilgrimage routes, offered shelter, food and water to caravans and travelers. The UNESCO-listed series represents the most notable examples of these structures, reflecting Iran’s architectural diversity and adaptation to climate. The sites illustrate how caravanserais facilitated travel and the exchange of ideas and cultures across regions before the modern era.

Caravanserai, also written as caravansary, is a compound word combining “caravan” with “sera or sara”; the former stands for a group of travelers and the latter means the building. They often had massive portals supported by elevated load-bearing walls. Guest rooms were constructed around the courtyard and stables behind them, with doors in the corners of the yard.

For many travelers, staying in or even visiting a centuries-old caravanserai can be a wide experience; they have an opportunity to feel the past, a time travel back to a forgotten age.

Cozy chambers that are meticulously laid out around a vast courtyard may easily evoke spirits of the past. It’s not hard to fancy the hustle and bustle of merchants bargaining on prices, recounting their arduous journeys to one another while their camels chewing hay! You can also conceive the idea of local architectural style and material in its heyday.

AM