Adur Gushnasp
fire temple in Takht-e Soleyman, major Zoroastrian sacred fire
Adur Gushnasp (Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭲𐭥𐭫𐭩 𐭦𐭩 𐭢𐭱𐭭𐭮𐭯, romanized: ʾtwly ZY gšnsp Ādur ī Gušnasp; New Persian: آذرگُشنَسپ, romanized: Āzargušnasp) was the name of a Zoroastrian sacred fire of the highest grade (Atash Behram), which served as one of the three most sacred fires of pre-Islamic Iran; the two others being the Adur Farnbag and Adur Burzen-Mihr. Out of the three, Adur Gushnasp is the only fire whose temple structure has been discovered and for which archaeological, sigillographical, and textual evidence are all available.
History
Location and purpose
The temple, constructed by the Sasanian kings, was located in the city of Shiz in Adurbadagan, now present-day Takht-e Soleymān in the West Azerbaijan province. It served as a prominent site of pilgrimage. The identification of the site of Takht-e Soleyman with that of the fire temple of Adur Gushnasp became clear when a Sasanian era-bullae was discovered there, which had the following engraving "High-priest of the house of the fire of Gushnasp" (mowbed i xanag i Adur i Gushnasp).
Origin
The fire is not mentioned in early Sasanian sources, and archaeology suggests that the fire was first taken to the site in Adurbadagan in the late 4th or early 5th-century. Under the Sasanians, the fire was linked with the warrior class (arteshtār), which the Sasanian dynasty itself belonged to. In the same fashion as the Arsacids on Adur Burzen-Mihr, the Sasanian kings bestowed gifts on the temple of Adur Gushnasp, the first recorded king being Bahram V (r. 420–438). The latter is mentioned in several instances related to the fire, such as celebrating Nowruz and Sadeh there, and also entrusting the high priest to convert his Indian wife. Khosrow I (r. 531–579) reportedly visited the fire before launching a military expedition.
“Adur Gushnasp” enters the record as fire temple in Takht-e Soleyman, major Zoroastrian sacred fire. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Adur, Gushnasp and fire can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Adur Gushnasp” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Adur, Gushnasp and fire provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6419581. Authority coordinates are 36.605, 47.235. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Adur Gushnasp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.