The Jam minaret is located 10 km northeast of the Jam village in the Afghan province of Gur at the confluence of the Jamrud stream into the Gerirud river. The gorge is surrounded by impenetrable mountains. There are no large settlements. Distance to Herat - 200 km.
The minaret reaches 65 meters (the second in the world, after the Delhi Qutb Minar, 73 meters, where there are several other monuments, including the famous stainless iron column). It was built in 1194 by the Ghurid sultan Giyaz ad-Din in honor of the final victory over the Ghaznavids in 1192, as the inscription on the minaret says. It must be said that this dynasty is traditionally called "Gurid", although its correct name (if you read the ligature, not its translations) is "Gary". And the name has a translation - "Light" … And perhaps this is due to the origin of the name of the city "Herat".
The minaret is built of baked bricks and is famous for its well-preserved art paintings, which include geometric ornaments and beautifully written verses of the Koran. Historians have also found inscriptions stylized as square Hebrew letters. Sanskrit inscriptions - alas, not found.
Scientists believe that the minaret is the only surviving building of the city of Firuzkuh (“blue hunger” - Dari / Urdu), which was the capital of the sultans of the Gurid dynasty, before it was transferred to Ghazni. The city was destroyed in 1221 by the army of Genghis Khan, and then even its location was forgotten for a long time. The minaret-mole “played hide and seek” with people for a long time, and was rediscovered in 1886 by Thomas Holdich, an English geographer and president of the Royal Geographical Society.
In 1943, Abdullah Khan Malekar (Governor of Herat) first took photographs of the abandoned minaret and reported it to Ahmed Ali Koazad, president of the Afghan Historical Society. In 1944, the first article about the monument was published.
On August 19, 1957, the French archaeologist André Marik was the first European scientist to reach the minaret, and in 1958 he published a report in the Notes of the French Delegation in Afghanistan.
In 1960, two representatives of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, Le Ber and his assistant Marshal, photographed the decorative panels and conducted an initial study of its architectural structure, finding an entrance with two spiral staircases approximately 4 m below the current level.
In 1961-1969 the Italian architect Andrea Bruno examined the minaret. Since the monument was threatened with collapse, local residents carried out work to strengthen the coast and built a wooden bridge across Gerirud, which was later destroyed during the hostilities. The ruins of the palace, fortifications, Muslim and Jewish cemeteries were discovered.
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Serious scientific research of the monument has not been carried out due to the inaccessibility and unstable political situation in the country over the past 40 years. The preservation of the minaret is threatened by floods eroding the foundation, earthquakes that often occur in the region and illegal excavations of value seekers. In 2002, the minaret and the adjacent unexplored site were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The existing version obviously has weaknesses. The place where the minaret is located is difficult to access and unstable due to the political and geological situation. Judging by the photos and satellite maps, there is no place for a palace or a mosque there. For a capital or a city in general - no. Moreover, due to the inaccessibility of this place, the brick was produced somewhere here.