In the desert of south-eastern Iran, the town of Bam grew rich on trade, dates and silk. Its fortified old town, the Arg-e Bam, may go back to the Achaemenid Persians, and it flourished between the 7th and 11th centuries on the trade routes between Persia, Central Asia and India.
Everything was built of mud brick and straw: the outer walls and towers, the houses and bazaars, the mosque and, at the very top, the governor's citadel. It was the largest adobe building complex in the world.
On 26 December 2003 a powerful earthquake struck Bam, killing more than 26,000 people and destroying much of the citadel. In 2004 UNESCO listed Bam and its Cultural Landscape as a World Heritage Site, and careful rebuilding is still going on.
