Case file · Folklore / legend
Takht-e Soleyman, Solomon's prison of demons
Local legend says King Solomon imprisoned demons in the bottomless crater lake of Takht-e Soleyman in Iran's Azerbaijan province, and in the nearby hollow cone called Solomon's Prison.
1270 CE · 36.60, 47.23 · status: legend
The account
The site held the great Sasanian fire temple Adur Gushnasp; the Ilkhanid ruler Abaqa built a summer palace there in the 1270s, and the Solomon name became attached in the Islamic period.
The sceptical view
The lake is fed by mineral springs that leave travertine; its depth is about 100 m.