In minutes, Bam's 2,000 years of history and its hopes for the future were left in ruins

Tania Branigan

For two millennia the tawny walls of the ancient citadel at Bam rose from the vast Dasht'e Kavir desert, drawing traders and pilgrims towards the lush oasis. But in just a few minutes yesterday morning, those centuries of splendour vanished as one of Iran's greatest archaeological treasures was levelled. The citadel, one of the greatest mudbrick structures in the world, had simply crumbled - along with hundreds of houses in the modern city around it.
While Bam has a long and glorious past it was its more recent success as an agricultural and industrial centre which drew thousands of migrants from across the south-east of Iran, indirectly leading to the earthquake's huge death toll.

Large-scale, low-quality construction dominated as foreign and domestic investment boosted the city's population to as many as 200,000 inhabitants. Residents copied the mudbrick structures of their ancestors, but added heavier roofing and threw up the buildings rapidly to cope with the desperate shortage of housing.

Until yesterday Bam's rapid growth appeared to herald a city on the rise. Much of the credit for its expansion is owed to Iran's former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was born to a pistachio-farming family in the region.

The city is famed for its rich crops: above all its dates, but also the oranges which are currently in season. Lush citrus groves surround the urban sprawl.

Mr Rafsanjani used his position to electrify the city - although power was cut off by yesterday's quake - and create the Arg special economic zone at Bam, where Daewoo car seats are now manufactured. Further investment brought hotels, sports fields, a race course and an airport - which may prove crucial to the international rescue and relief operation.

The new facilities now lie amid the devastation of the older areas, where residents yesterday shivered around the bonfires they had built on rubble-strewn streets.

"The historical quarter of the city has been completely destroyed and caused great human loss," said Mehran Nourbakhsh, chief spokesman for the Red Crescent.

There could be no greater contrast with the splendour the city once knew. Its citadel, Arg-e Bam, built from mud bricks, straw and the trunks of palm trees, covers almost six square kilometres. Hundreds of houses encircled the ruler's palace; its central stables housed 200 horses; and it boasted a prison, a bazaar and a gymnasium. It appears that few of those structures remain today.

"It's a tragedy for the whole country," said Shahrokh Razmjou, a curator at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran.

"The citadel is one of the greatest structures made in mudbrick in the world. Outside the fortified walls you have traces of the Parthian period, almost 2,000 years ago, and there are references to the town in documents from earlier periods as well."

Dr Razmjou said that over time the town has developed layer upon layer. "There have been reconstructions and changes to the city in different dynasties. You have almost everything there from different periods: mosques, schools, the palace for governor and houses for the people."

Bam became an important commercial centre because of its location on the Silk Road between China and Europe, and the southern trade route from Pakistan and India. The city is just 350km (217 miles) west of modern Pakistan.

It was celebrated for its high quality textiles, and its Zoroastrian fire temple - later replaced by a mosque - attracted pilgrims from across the region. At the height of its power, in the Savafid period, between the 16th and 18th centuries, it was home to almost 13,000 people.

But it gradually declined in importance after an Afghan invasion in 1722, and most residents moved to areas outside the walls in the 19th century, leaving the citadel to be used as barracks until even the army abandoned it in 1932.

Restoration efforts began 21 years later, and after the revolution it became a major tourist site, attracting more than 100,000 visitors each year.

But tourism had recently been hit by crime in the region, including the kidnap of western holidaymakers by armed gangs.

Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised visitors to exercise caution and travel only with government-approved tours.

The loss of valuable income from foreign holidaymakers will compound the desperate plight of Bam's residents. "Historically and archaeologically the whole area is very, very rich and a very important part of Iran," said Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, a curator at the British Museum and editor of Iran, a journal of Iranian studies.

"It's a terrible shame, though the human loss is of course far greater. With this earthquake the damage is probably so, so great that I don't know whether they can reconstruct [the citadel]. They did a lot of work there with the Cultural Heritage Foundation and have detailed plans so they do know exactly what the outlines are. But of course it would be very difficult - and costly - to reconstruct it."

Unesco, the United Nations main cultural agency, has asked Tehran for permission to dispatch an assessment team to examine what remains of the structure.

John Curtis, keeper of the ancient near east at the British Museum, said that the Iranian government had a good record in preserving cultural sites, but that there were not many precautions they could have taken to prevent damage to a site such as the citadel.

"They have looked after archaeological and historic sites very well and I'm sure they will do their best to minimise the impact of this disaster, but it will be substantial nonetheless," he said.

"It's a very spectacular site, incredibly well preserved, which is why it's so important; it's a whole 18th century town. It's a great loss to the cultural heritage of Iran.

"The tourist trade in Iran has been gradually increasing ever since the revolution and there are many spectacular sites. But I have no doubt they were hoping to promote and encourage tourism and this is obviously a blow to that effort."