DAMGHAN

damghan, a town of persia in the province of semnan va damghan, 216 m. from teheran on the high-road thence to khorasan, at an elevation of 3770 ft. and in 36 deg. 10' n., 54 deg. 20' e. pop. about 10,000. there are post and telegraph offices, and a great export trade is done in pistachios and almonds, the latter being of the kind called _kaghazi_ ("of paper") with very thin shells, famous throughout the country. damghan was an important city in the middle ages, but only a ruined mosque with a number of massive columns and some fine wood carvings and two minarets of the 11th century remain of that period. near the city, a few miles south and south-west, are the remains of hecatompylos, extending from frat, 16 m. south of damghan, to near gusheh, 20 m. west. damghan was destroyed by the afghans in 1723. on an eminence in the western part of the city are the ruins of a large square citadel with a small white-washed building, called _molud khaneh_ (the house of birth), in which fath ali shah was born (1772).