“You Already Know That the Town of Shiraz No Longer Exists”: Reappraising the May 1853 Devastating Earthquake in Shiraz, Iran

Abstract The Iranian plateau is located in the middle section of the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt and has experienced high-magnitude earthquakes during its turbulent history. Shiraz, a historic and prosperous city in southwestern Iran, was heavily damaged by an earthquake on 4 May 1853. An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.2 shook the city of Shiraz and killed at least 9000 people. This earthquake was definitely the deadliest one in the country’s nineteenth century. In the present article, this earthquake is reappraised by reviewing and comparing the available and original published resources. The territory of the historic region of the city and the landmark buildings damaged in the earthquake are identified using satellite imagery from Google Earth. Complete details of the construction method and the material used at the time of the earthquake are also presented using the information available in the literature and from a personal visit by the authors.