Historical monuments show our cultural and historical identity and are very important evidences to introduce our existence, believe, customs, abilities in the long different periods of history and our real face. There are hundreds of historical monuments in Afghanistan, which are mostly located in Herat, Balkh, Kabul, Ghazni, Bamian and Samanghan provinces of Afghanistan. Herat a very important city of Arianna the great, then Khorasan the great and now a very important city of Afghanistan has the most historical monuments than all over the country. These all show its rich history from Arianna the great to Khorasan the great. All indicates a big civilization which is the origin of hundreds of kings, poets, mystic, scientists, calligraphists, painters, miniaturists, architectures, champions, writers and so forth.  One of these important monuments is Ikhtiaraddin castle which is also called Herat castle, Shamiran castel and Balahasar castle.

Shamiran castle is located in north side of Herat city with 20 meters height. In 330 BC when Alexandra the Great conquered Herat (at that its name was Hariva, a province of Arianna the Great) destroyed the city and made a new one, he also made a citadel for its soldiers. He destroyed the castle during the conquering of the city and made it again. In other words, it was built in kingdom period of the Fraidon the king of Arianna the great by his daughter’s order Shamira. So, it called Shamiran castle, then Alexandra destroyed it to conquer the city and reconstruct it again. It was destroyed by Genghis Khan the founder of Mongolian empire, and reconstructed again.  It was used always as a military base, and was a shelter for soldiers. Recently, its responsibility transferred from defense ministry of Afghanistan to culture and information ministry. They removed all the military equipments and reconstructed it by financially help of The United States of America. Now, it is changed to the museum of Herat.

Historical monuments are the inheritance of our ancestors. They show our rich and proud history. We can learn that they made such huge civilization and did important services to the humankind, so we should keep their way and follow them. The historical monuments protection is everybody’s responsibility without any exception. These are good evidences to introduce our history, culture, civilization, people and totally our identity to the world.