Soltaniyeh

Soltaniyeh (, also Romanized as Solţānīyeh, Solţāneyyeh, Sultaniye, and Sultānīyeh; also known as Sa‘īdīyeh; ) is the capital city of Soltaniyeh District of Soltaniyeh County, Zanjan Province, northwestern Iran.
At the 2006 census, its population was 5,684, in 1,649 families.
History.
Soltaniyeh, located some to the north-west of Tehran, was built as the capital of Mongol Ilkhanid rulers of Iran in the 14th century. Its name which refers to the Islamic ruler title sultan translates loosely as "the Regal". Soltaniyeh was visited by Ruy González de Clavijo, who reported that the city was a hub of silk exportation.
In 2005, UNESCO listed Soltaniyeh as one of the World Heritage Sites. The road from Zanjan to Soltaniyeh extends until it reaches to the Katale khor cave.
William Dalrymple notes that Öljaitü intended Soltaniyeh to be "the largest and most magnificent city in the world" but that it "died with him" and is now "a deserted, crumbling spread of ruins."
Ecclesiastical history.
Established on 1 April 1318 as Latin Metropolitan Archdiocese of Soltania (Latin and Curiate Italian) or Soltaniyeh.
It 1329 the Latin Diocese of Samarcanda became its suffragan for the Chagatai Khanate, at least until Tamerlane (founder of the Uzbek Timurids) swept its see Samarkand.
Suppressed as residential see around 1450.
Titular see.
Transformed at its suppression as residential see in 1450 into a Latin Titular archbishopric, which was itself suppressed in 1926.
It has had the following incumbents, of both the fitting archiepiscopal (intermediary) and the (lower) episcopal ranks :
Sources and external links.
http://sultaniyya.org/