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LONDON, (CAIS) -- Rivand Fire Temple in the village of Rivand in Khorasan Province, has finally been surveyed after its discovery and registration on Iran's national heritage list in 1981, reported Persian service of ISNA on Monday.

The Chahar Taqi (fire temple) also known to locals as Khan-Div is located in the highlands of Rivand, in the rural district of Baashtin, 40 kilometers North-East of city of Sabzevar in Khorasan province.

"The fire Temple was discovered and  identified by Fae'q Tohidi in 1981, and after 30 [27] years a joint research team from Iran and Poland has surveyed it," said Mohammad Abdollahzadeh-Sani, director of Sabzevar archaeological team.

Abdollahzadeh-Sani added: "previously the fire temple was thought to be a free-standing structure, but our survey shows the Chahar Taqi was part of a large fire-temple complex."

Abdollahzadeh-Sani concluded that this fire temple could possibly be the renowned Sasanian Azar-Borzin fire temple, denoted to the Dihghan or the land-gentry class. A number of Iranian scholars are disagreeing with this claim. They believe the lost Sasanian fire temple should be in a village known as Jonbad (ancient Gonbad), in the rural district of Kidhqaan of the Shehshtmad district of Sabzevar.

According to chapter 17.8 of Bundahishn, when Asho Zarathushtra brought the divine message, king Vishtaspa lit the fire in Pusht-i Vishtaspan mount (modern Rivand) at the abode of the Burzin-Mitro fire, nine leagues (parasang) to the west. 

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