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Anahita
Anahita is the name of a popular Zoroastrian yazatā and an ancient Iranian cosmological figure venerated as the female guardian angel of waters (Ābān), associated with fertility, healing and wisdom. Her name is (Avestan) Ardәwī Sūrā Anāhitā, (Old-Persian) Anāhitā, (Middle-Persian) Ardwīsūr Anāhīd (New-Persian) Nāhīd. In Armenia she is called Anāhit and Greeco-Roman historians refer to her either as Anāitis or identified her with one of the divinities from their own pantheons.
An iconic shrine cult of Aredvi Sura Anahita was - together with other shrine
cults- "introduced apparently in the 4th century BCE and lasted until suppressed
[in the wake of] an iconoclastic movement by the Sasanian dynasty" (Boyce 1975b,
p. 454.)
Anahita, or Nahid, was a major deity in the pre-Islamic Iran. She was the
protector of water and the goddess of beauty, fertility and fecundity. During
the Parthian period Anahita's worship become so popular and venerable that
Tiridates I was crowned in her temple. The worship of Anahita in the Kangavar
region was particularly so popular that in the first half of the first century
AD the Greek geographer, Isidore of Charax, was the first to mention the Temple
in his book by the name of Konkobar, refering to it as the "Temple of Artemis".
The temple is located in Kangavar, a small town of great antiquity lying halfway
between Hamedan and Kermanshah. Architecture of this temple coincides with
palaces and temples built during the Achaemenian period, 550 BC to 330 BC, in
western Iran, like Persepolis and palace of Darius in Susa. Large pieces of
stone are cut and shaped into blocks of rock. They are placed on top of each
other; their shape usually causes them to interlock to form a wall or platform
by a mountainside. The colums themselves have an Ionice shape which was vastly
used by Greeks in structures like Parthenon ( im not sure who copeid who).
According to classic historians, the temple of Anahita at Ecbatana was a vast
palace, four-fifths of a mile in circumference, built of cedar or cypress. In
all of it, not a single plank or column stood but was covered by plates of
silver or gold. Every tile of the floors was made of silver, and the whole
building was apparently faced with bricks of silver and gold. It was first
plundered by Alexander in 335 BC, then further stripped during the reigns of
Antigonus (BC 325-301) and Seleucus Nicator (BC 312-280).
The site has been dated to the Parthian period based on a number of
archaeological pieces of evidence such as pottery, carved stones, and brials
typical of the period. Today, houses and streets have been built on its surface
and only part of the temple has remained intact being adjacent to the Imamzadeh
Mosque.