Bandian Complex

The Bandian Complex is a fifth-century Sasanian structure near the town of Dargaz in Iran's Razavi Khorasan Province, widely recognized as the most important known Sasanian site in Khorasan. Its centrepiece is a hypostyle hall — a columned space adorned with seven stone reliefs and five Middle Persian inscriptions, among the rarest epigraphic records from the late-antique Iranian world. The inscriptions are of particular value to scholars of Middle Persian language and Sasanian court culture. Whether the building served as a palace, fire temple, or ceremonial reception hall remains an open question in current scholarship. Excavations have uncovered the remains in fragmentary condition; the site is protected as Iranian cultural heritage and draws archaeologists and historians specialising in pre-Islamic Iran.