Kalat-e Naderi ( fa, کلات نادری) is a massive natural fortress located about 44 miles north of

Sousia Tus (Persian: توس Tus), also spelled as Tous or Toos, is an ancient city in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran near Mashhad. To the ancient Greeks, it was known as Susia ( grc, Σούσια). It was also known as Tusa. Tus was divided into ...

, in

Kalat County Kalat County ( fa, شهرستان کلات) is located in Razavi Khorasan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and T ...

, Razavi Khorasan Province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. It is essentially a massive plateau about four miles in circumference that has been used as a fortress since before the

Achaemenid era The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

. It is surrounded on three sides by high cliff walls ranging from 1500 feet on the south side to 2000 feet on the west side with lower eastern walls and a gently sloping plain leading up to the heights from the north. It is famous as the only fortress ever to withstand a siege by

Tamerlane Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

's army laid siege to it. While Alexander left to deal with a rebellious

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

chieftain, he ordered

Craterus Craterus or Krateros ( el, Κρατερός; c. 370 BC – 321 BC) was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great and one of the Diadochi. Throughout his life he was a loyal royalist and supporter of Alexander the Great.Anson, Edward M. (20 ...

to command the majority of the army and take the fortress. Some of the first European travellers to travel there include Sir John McNeill and Colonel Beake (brother of

Charles Tilstone Beke Charles Tilstone Beke (10 October 1800 – 31 July 1874) was an English traveller, geographer and Biblical critic. Biography Born in Stepney, London, the son of a merchant in the City of London, for a few years Beke engaged in mercantile pursuit ...

). It was more fully described by William Gill, after his expedition with

Valentine Baker Valentine Baker (also known as Baker Pasha) (1 April 1827 – 17 November 1887), was a British soldier, and a younger brother of Sir Samuel Baker. Biography Baker was educated in Gloucester and in Ceylon, and in 1848 entered the Ceylon Rifles ...

in 1873:

Kila't is one of the most remarkable places in the world; it is a natural fortress, and if anything in the world can be impregnable it is certainly Kila't. The description of the Happy Valley in the romance of " Rasselas" might almost be taken for it. It is a large valley, surrounded on all sides by mountains absolutely inaccessible from the outside. ..The inhabitants have their herds, and cultivate their corn, all in the valley, and consequently they could not be starved out.

See also

References

Further reading