ABSTRACT
In some ancient cultures mountains were considered holy and the place of the Gods. Others believed that the Gods were in heaven and built their temples or tombs in higher ground to be closer to them. Irrespective of the correctness of such beliefs, the world today has inherited numerous examples of such structures and owes much of their cultural history to such cliff architecture and rock reliefs. Worshippers of ancient beliefs such as Mithraism met in underground temples which were either adapted natural caves, or artificial buildings constructed to imitate caverns. In those times, deceased bodies would be buried in a way to prevent them from coming into contact with soil, water, and fire and excavated chamber-like structures would serve as tombs. This paper aims to review the history and architecture of some of the above mentioned underground temples and tombs, constructed in ancient Iran.
