Qualla: Castle of Oblivion https://qualla.com/castle-of-oblivion en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/e/q/castle-of-oblivion-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Castle of Oblivion https://qualla.com/castle-of-oblivion Castle of Oblivion: Introduction https://qualla.com/castle-of-oblivion/ Photo credit ArmanGoharinasab, CC BY-SA 4.0. You were not executed. You were forgotten. That was the punishment the Sasanian kings reserved for their most dangerous political prisoners -- not a public death that might create a martyr, but disappearance into a fortress so secret that speaking its name was forbidden. The Castle of Oblivion, known in Armenian as berd Anush, held captive kings and deposed princes in the lowlands of Khuzestan, somewhere near the Karun River. No one was permitted to mention the prisoners held inside. Their names were erased from conversation. They ceased to exist in every way that mattered, except that they continued to breathe.

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/e/q/castle-of-oblivion-wp/tjeq-castle-of-oblivion-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Castle of Oblivion: A Name That Contradicts Itself https://qualla.com/castle-of-oblivion/ Photo credit Arghiyan, CC BY-SA 3.0. Even the fortress's name carries layers of deception. Armenian sources called it berd Anush, and for centuries scholars interpreted this as the Castle of Oblivion -- a fitting name for a place designed to erase memory. But the linguist Claudia Ciancaglini has argued that the Arme...

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Image: Arghiyan | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/e/q/castle-of-oblivion-wp/tjeq-castle-of-oblivion-a-name-that-contradicts-itself.mp3 0:06 2 full Castle of Oblivion: The King Who Took His Own Life https://qualla.com/castle-of-oblivion/ Photo credit Adrin.scotland, CC0. The most famous prisoner of the Castle of Oblivion was Arshak II, an Arsacid prince who ruled Armenia as a Roman client king from 350 until roughly 367 CE. His downfall began with the Sasanian king Shapur II's invasion of Armenia. Arshak had allied with Rome, but after the Roman ...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/e/q/castle-of-oblivion-wp/tjeq-castle-of-oblivion-the-king-who-took-his-own-life.mp3 0:06 3 full Castle of Oblivion: The King Who Escaped https://qualla.com/castle-of-oblivion/ Photo credit Behrad09, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not everyone who entered the Castle of Oblivion died there. Kavad I, a Sasanian king, was imprisoned after being deposed by his own nobility and clergy in 496 CE. His crime was supporting the radical teachings of the Mazdakite preacher Mazdak, whose egalitarian ideas threatened t...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/e/q/castle-of-oblivion-wp/tjeq-castle-of-oblivion-the-king-who-escaped.mp3 0:06 4 full Castle of Oblivion: Lost to the Landscape https://qualla.com/castle-of-oblivion/ Photo credit Ghobadj, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Castle of Oblivion fulfilled its own prophecy. Its precise location is unknown. Scholars believe it stood near the ancient city of Gundeshapur, along the Karun River in what is now Khuzestan province, but no confirmed ruins have been identified. The Roman historian Ammianus M...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/e/q/castle-of-oblivion-wp/tjeq-castle-of-oblivion-lost-to-the-landscape.mp3 0:06 5 full