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Invisible input - wisdom

Background

Kangavar (Persian: كنگاور‎‎; also Romanized as Kangāvar) is a city in and the capital of Kangavar County, Kermanshah Province, Iran.  Kangavar is located in the easternmost part of Kermanshah Province, on the modern road from Hamadan to Kermanshah, identical with a trace of the Silk Road, located at the distance of about 75 km from Hamadan and 96 km from Kermanshah.  The district, which lies in the Kangavar river valley, is very fertile and contains 30 villages. Kangavar township is 47 miles from Hamadan on the high road to Kermanshah.

Its name may be derived from the Avestan Kanha-vara, 'enclosure of Kanha'.  This alone should indicate that it was once a very sacred site, but of great interest is that it appears to have been a site for the Mysteries and the use of LOVE and sexual techniques, “the association with the divinity of fertility, healing, and wisdom has made the site a popular tourist attraction.”

Temple_of_Anahita_by_Eugène_Flandin

Kangavar was mentioned by Isidore of Charax in the 1st century AD, by the name of "Konkobar" or "Concobar" (Greek: Κογκοβάρ) in the ancient province of Ecbatana (modern Hamedan). In antiquity, the city was in Media, with a temple of Artemis (Isidor. Char. p. 7; Tab. Pent.; Geogr. Rav.)

Today, the town is best known for the archaeological remains of a mixed Sassanid and Achaemenid-style edifice. During the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the ruins were misused as a source for building material for the expanding town. Excavation first began in 1968, by which time the "large structure with its great columns set on a high stone platform" had been associated with a comment by Isidore of Charax, that refers to a "temple of Artemis" (Parthian Stations 6) at "Concobar" in Lower Medea, on the overland trade route between the Levant and India. References to Artemis in Iran are generally interpreted to be references to Anahita, and thus Isidore's "temple of Artemis" came to be understood as a reference to a temple of Anahita - Venus.

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