Mehmandoost Tower is one of the must-see places in Semnan. Mehmandoost Tower has a long history and has gone through many incidents and events and is waiting for the listener to tell its stories and adventures. This tower is one of the most exceptional tomb towers in Iran with its three graves and low-key architecture, and it has a long history. Although similar to this tower exists in other places, but the architecture of this tower was very special and dazzles the eyes of every viewer.
This tower is located at a distance of 16 kilometers from Damghan and is 1000 years old and belongs to the Seljuk era. According to the age of this tower and the events it has gone through, it can be understood which the architecture of the tower was done with great precision and elegance, that this tower was able to survive to this day despite the adversities of the weather and various wars (such as the war of Nader Shah Afshar and Ashraf Afghan). Stand up although the architecture and construction style of this tower is impressive and beautiful, the stories told by the local people about the tower can also be heard. When visiting this tower, do not forget to take a picture of the tower. There is also an ancient hill and an old aqueduct around the tower.
Mehmandoost Tower is a 12-sided building with a height of 14.5 meters. In the upper part of it, three rows of muqrans are worked and above it there is an inscription that covers the entire building and the date of construction of the building (490 Hijri corresponding to the era of Sultan Sanjar Seljuq) is mentioned in Kufic script. Although the tower is built on a circular base, its body has been changed into a twelve-sided shape and then into a cylinder, and this change in shape has turned Mehmandoost Tower into a special tower. The inner radius of the tower is 8 meters and it has 12 cracks of 1.22 meters, one of which is the entrance to Mehmandoost Tower. One of the interesting points of the tower is its height, which has decreased over time. In the past, this tower had a conical dome, and with the loss of that dome, the height of the tower has increased over time. It is interesting to know that this tower is very similar to the Toghrel tower of Ray city, and for this reason it is also called the hospitable Toghrel tower.
It is interesting to know that the people of the region know this tower as “Sarbarandar Tower”. The reason for this name change is the lack of a roof for the tower. According to the stories of the people of the region, it was narrated from the past that one day they woke up and saw the tower without a roof, without any accident or incident as the cause. After that, several attempts were made to build the roof of this tower, but all efforts led to failure, as if the tower does not accept any other roof except its main roof. Inside, there is a brick grave and two other graves whose owners are not known, and it is possible that they were the tombs of the elders of the region. However, the people of the central grave region attribute it to Imamzadeh Qasim (a descendant of Musa bin Jafar (AS)) and it is also called Imamzadeh Mehmandoost, Burj Masumzadeh, Imamzadeh Qasim or Imamzadeh Sarbarandar. Of course, it must be said that the authenticity of this story has not been confirmed and it cannot be said that these graves definitely belong to Imamzadeh.
