The Minaret of Jam soars into the sky in a steep-sided valley in central Afghanistan - it is hard to believe that such a magnificent, 63 m high structure could have been ‘forgotten’ about by the outside world after the Mongol destruction of the site ca. 1221-2. Then again, given the remoteness of Jam, perhaps it is not surprising that the Minaret remained virtually unknown until the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission ‘re-discovered’ it in 1886. Even then, only a handful of scholars and intrepid tourists ventured to the site before the Soviet invasion in 1979, and the subsequent decades of turmoil, effectively placed Jam out of bounds.

The principal study of the minaret was carried out by the French scholars Maricq and Wiet in the late 1950s. With the exception of Herberg and Davary’s brief surveys in the 1970s, little fieldwork had been conducted on the surrounding archaeological site, until the inception of the Minaret of Jam Archaeological Project in 2003. We completed a second season of fieldwork at Jam in 2005, but urgent structural work to consolidate the minaret has since prevented our return. Consequently, we are about to commence a survey of Ghurid and other archaeological sites in Ghur province, as part of a training scheme with archaeologists from the National Afghan Institute of Archaeology and Kabul University.

Jam is located at the confluence of the Hari Rud and Jam Rud, about 215 km to the east of Herat, in Ghor province of central Afghanistan. The site is 1900 m above sea-level, with nearby mountain peaks reaching nearly 3500 m. The harsh winters are often followed by severe flooding as the snows melt; the summers are hot and dry. With little flat land available along the scree-covered valleys, local people struggle to survive in a subsistence economy.

The inhospitable climate and terrain make it all the more remarkable that Jam was once the centre of a huge empire - scholars generally agree that Jam is ancient Firuzkuh, the summer capital of the Ghurids.