I think you all know Assassins (Hashshashins,"hashish smokers"), the worst terrorists in the history, those who believed murdering as a religious duty, the open history of the Assassins began in 1090, when Hasan-e Sabbah and his allies captured the hill fortress of Alamut near Kazvin, Iran. From this centre, by the end of the 11th century, Hasan, as grand master or leader of the sect, commanded a chain of strongholds all over Iran and Iraq, a network of propagandists, a corps of devoted terrorists, and an unknown number of agents in enemy camps and cities. The Seljuq sultanate's attempts to capture Alamut failed, and soon the Assassins were claiming many victims among the generals and statesmen of the 'Abbasid caliphate, including two caliphs.
I went there for the first time in the last friday, it was great especially in summer because Alamut is in a cold region, the distance between Kazvin (ancient Caspian) and Tehran is about 130 km and there is about 90 km between Almaut and Kazvin, of course the second one takes more time because the road is very winding.
Anyway the first place that we visted in Alamut region, was the beautiful lake of Ovan:
After this lake, you see that the region becomes a little mysterious, the shapes of mountains are different and there are many caves and hidden places there.
Castle of Alamut is at the top of one of these mountains:
There are several watch towers with different shapes in this mountain:
There is just one difficult road to the castle, it is a great building, however it has been destroyed badly: