Timur Castle

Iran, Iran

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Timur Castle (also spelled Teimoor Castle or Ghaleh Teymur) is a historic fortress located in Zabol County in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, southeastern Iran, near the ancient city known as Zahedan-e Kohneh (Old Zahedan). The castle’s origins are linked to the Mongol and Safavid periods, and it is considered part of the broader archaeological complex of Old Zahedan, which was a major regional capital and one of the largest cities in Iran during the 11th–14th centuries. Situated to the southwest of the ruins of Old Zahedan in the Posht Ab area, the fortress is understood to have served defensive and possibly administrative functions within this once-extensive urban center that included multiple sections such as Ghale, Arg Aval, Arg Dovom, Sharestan, and Rabath. Although scattered references mention Timurid architecture and Timur’s own palaces in Central Asia, the Timur Castle in Iran is not a palace built by Timur himself but rather a local fortress whose name refers more likely to the Timurid era or to later associations with that dynasty, and its surviving remains are now an important cultural and historical landmark in the Sistan region.