Rafsanjān

Rafsanjan lies in a broad basin northwest of Kerman, amid the desert-edge oases of the Iranian plateau. Underground water channels made cultivation possible in this dry country. The town was formerly known as Bahramabad; scholars have suggested that it either occupied or succeeded the medieval settlement of Unas. Its old walls had several watchtowers and four gates, enclosing a community on the route between Kerman and Yazd.

The name Bahramabad appears in records from the late fourteenth century. Under the Safavids, Ganj Ali Khan, governor of Kerman under Shah Abbas I, sponsored the Kabutar Khan caravanserai in the district. Its corner towers protected a courtyard where travellers and their animals could rest. The fortified inn recalls the traffic through the basin as well as the governor's investment in buildings along the roads of his province.