Minaret of Jam

The Minaret of Jam is a tower made of bricks.

It is in Afghanistan, a country in Asia. Mountains rise all around it. Two rivers meet right beside it.

The Minaret of Jam stands in a deep river valley in Ghor province, Afghanistan. It is 1,900 meters above sea level and far from any town, at the spot where the Jam river joins the Hari River.

A minaret is a tall tower built beside or near a mosque. This one is 65 meters tall, and it is made of fired bricks. It was built more than 800 years ago, and it was the first place in Afghanistan to become a World Heritage Site, in 2002.

The minaret stands about 215 km east of Herat, in a rugged valley of Ghor province where the Jam river joins the Hari River, 1,900 m above sea level. Afghanistan's nomination file notes that the mountains around it reach 2,400 m.

UNESCO inscribed the Minaret and Archaeological Remains of Jam in 2002 under criteria (ii), (iii) and (iv): for the influence of its design on the arts and architecture of the Indian subcontinent, as testimony to the Ghurid civilization that dominated the region in the 12th and 13th centuries, and as an outstanding example of Islamic architecture and ornament in the region. The property covers 70 hectares, with a 600-hectare buffer zone.

The bricks make patterns, like lace.

There is writing made of bricks too. One band of writing is bright blue-green.

Almost the whole outside of the minaret is covered with raised patterns made of bricks laid over the plain bricks of the wall. The shapes catch the sunlight and make patterns of light and shade.

The tower also carries writing, made of bricks too. It is in Kufic, the oldest style of Arabic calligraphy, the nomination file says. Most of it is the same color as the bricks, but one band, around the top of the lowest round section, is glazed turquoise. It gives the date the tower was built and the sultan's name. Lower down, a long band of brick writing holds the whole of one chapter of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam.

Except for one band of blue tile inscription, the exterior of the shaft is covered with geometric decoration in relief laid over the plain structural bricks. UNESCO judges this brickwork the culmination of an architectural and artistic tradition in the region, fusing earlier developments and influencing later buildings; the nomination traces the tradition back to the 10th-century tomb of Ismail in Bukhara.

The inscriptions are in Kufic, which the file calls the oldest Arabic calligraphic style. Another band reads 'Work of Ali, son of Amir Muhammad …'. The most intricate tier, the first cylinder, is divided into eight vertical panels edged by a continuous band that carries the full text of the Quran's 19th chapter, Surah Maryam, in 976 words formed from small carved terracotta bricks. The short inscription around the top of the first tier, naming the sultan and giving the date 1194, is the turquoise band: Kufic glazed in turquoise against plain buff brick.

The tower stands right next to two rivers.

Sometimes the rivers flood. People put stones and walls by the water to keep the tower safe.

Standing where two rivers meet is beautiful, but it is also risky. Floods can wear away the riverbanks next to it. In 2000, experts found that the tower leaned about 2 degrees toward the Hari River. In 1978 workers placed big metal cages filled with stones by the river to stop the water from cutting into its base, and later stone walls were built along both riverbanks.

Because of its fragility, the minaret was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger as soon as it was listed in 2002. In early 2022, 60 people from six nearby villages spent three weeks clearing stones from the riverbeds, with help from UNESCO, to protect the tower from flash floods.

UNESCO names seasonal flash floods as one of the main risks, because they can undercut the minaret's foundations at the river junction. In 1978 UNESCO paid for wire cages filled with local stone to protect the base, and the nomination records that in 2000 the minaret was still leaning about 2 degrees north, toward the Hari River. A protective wall of gabions and stone, 45 m long and 5 m high, was built along the Hari between October 2000 and January 2001, and the file records a first protective wall along the Jam in 2001.

Because of its fragility, the site was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger as soon as it was inscribed in 2002. UNESCO's support included a detailed 3D survey in October 2017, a project funded by the heritage alliance ALIPH from 2020, and a three-week riverbed clearing in February and March 2022 that employed 60 people from six villages in Jam.