Abstract
The purpose of this research is analysis and survey architecture decorations of wooden pillars in the mosques of Maragheh. The research method in this study is based on surveying and descriptive analysis. The data of this research are contains 14 mosques in Maragheh, that from these numbers 8 mosques haven’t been studied because of that general reconstruction or without being pillars. So, in this study 6 mosques of Maragheh have been surveyed and analyzed. Today, because of the lack of use this kind of decorations in the construction of mosques and their uniqueness, this study is essential. The wooden capitals in this research are decorated with motifs of stalactite work and woodturning with shapes of geometric dangling, stair, and crenate. On these capitals are abundantly seen decorations of arabesque motifs. The colors are used in this motifs contains black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, light brown and dark, turquoise, and ranges of these colors. The alongside these decorations has been used calligraphy of verses and holy names. The results of this study indicate that decorations architecture of wooden pillars in the mosques of Maragheh despite having art style of unit, they have variety of colors, designs and form of pillars. The method of doing this research is field-library. The field data have been collected with direct observation from wooden pillars, and then designed them with using software Corldraw. Thus, two main questions in this research that the authors try to analyze them is as follows: Can with compare and analyze the decorations of pillars common tips between them found? And, what have decorations of pillars pattern? 
Keywords: Decorations, wooden pillars, mosques of Maragheh, Islamic architecture.

Introduction 
In monuments and mosques have been used from the wood as the main components and also as a decorative element. The slender and long wooden trunks with decorations as carrier pillars of roof have been used in buildings. These wooden pillars have played a key role in holding pillars and prayers hall of mosques. The decorating the inner surface of wooden roofs has been of evolved over time and arrived in the late centuries of Islamic to ultimately development. During the Safavid period, that construction of wooden ceilings, known as Chehelsotun, has become spread (Soleymani et.al, 2011: 27).
In Maragheh city is remained wooden mosques of beautiful from Safavid period. These mosques have been contains 14 mosques, but in this research have been studied decorations of pillars mosques Molla Rostam, Molla Moez Aldin, Zarir, Sefid, Ghazi, and Najarlar. These mosques have wooden decorations and the capitals of wooden stalactite in these mosques have been decorated with motifs of arabesque and calligraphy. The artists tried in decoration of these pillars have been used the most beautiful and diverse designs. The authors in this research, after survey all of the pillars, have been presented the fixed pattern from them. So, due to the registration of Maragheh wooden mosques in the national monuments list and wooden decorations of unique them, do this research is essential.
The field data have been collected with direct observation from wooden pillars, and then designed them with using software Corldraw. The study of library resources is contains of study the articles and books published in this field and also use the archive of cultural heritage administration of Maragheh County.

Introducing samples of mosques
Mosque of Molla Rostam: This mosque is located in the south side of the Molla Rostam square and among the Chay Osto Bazaar. Most of the pillars of this mosque are made of wood and stalactite motifs. The wooden pillars in this mosque have been prepared from Sepidar tree and woodturning to form of octagonal.
Mosque of Molla Moez Aldin: This mosque is located on the west side of the Khoshkbar square (Salar neighborhood and Hatam alley) in Maragheh city. The mosque of Molla Moez Aldin has two prayers halls of eastern and western. These two prayers halls have roof with flat cover and beamed ceiling, and with the capitals of stalactite.
Mosque of Zarir: This mosque is located in the northeastern part of Maragheh City and in street of Mir Habib Agha. The roof with flat cover of prayers hall in mosque of Zarir has six wooden pillars in two rows. Each of these pillars are consists of a stone pedestal, stem of wooden pillar, and capitals of stalactite.
Mosque of Sefid: This building is located in the southeastern part of the historical context of Maragheh city, and along one of the historical and main gates of this city in the name of “Darvazeh Biron Ghaleh”. The prayers hall of this mosque has the pillar, and the pillars of them are numbers three.
Mosque of Ghazi: This mosque is located in the Ghazi neighborhood of Maragheh city and corner of Ghods street. The date of construction this mosque is Safavid period. The prayers hall mosque of Ghazi has roof with flat cover, and six of pillars with capitals of stalactite.
Mosque of Najarlar: This mosque is located in the Qom neighborhood of northern in Maragheh city. The plane of this mosque is to form of rectangle, and has a prayers hall with three numbers of pillars with stalactite.

Conclusion
The motifs and schemes in architecture decorations of wooden pillars in the mosques of Maragheh, in addition to the have artistic style of unit, they have color variation, scheme, and form in pillars. According to the construction period these mosques, we can see differences in them. The main decorations in these mosques are contains of the rich motifs and arabesque motifs. The colors are used in this motifs contains black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, light brown and dark, turquoise, and ranges of these colors. The alongside these decorations has been used calligraphy of verses and holy names.

Abstract
Rocky sanctuaries are the most valuable works of Iranian architecture, that have been formed over a long period of time, and due to the continuity of traditions or slowness of the transformation process, their exact date is difficult. Among them “Kohulu Mechid” is the rocky sanctuary in the city of Maragheh, East Azarbaijan, which, no coherent studies have been conducted around it yet. This research seeks to provide dates and more acceptable practices for this sanctuary, through a comparative study and a review of some of the details, though deep and accurate research needs archaeological speculation and science. However, according to available evidence and based on the present research, this rocky structure was created during the Ilkhanid period and the nature of its usage, religious sanctuary , is proposed for non-Islamic religions, including Buddhists and Christianity, that is called mosque with religious reforms in later periods and its user modification. 
Keywords: Maragheh County, Gheshlagh Village, Rocky Sanctuary, Kohulu Mechid, Gahengari.

Introduction
The emergence of rocky architectural studies in Maragheh county is considered, one of the most important factor of the non-identification, registration and introduction of rocky cliffs in the Sufichai river basin. The identification of these cliffs was carried out in the solar year of 1393 with the aim of studying and archaeologically investigating of the handcrafted architecture of the city of Discussion and analysis According to the studies, the best period of the time formation of this sanctuary is related to the Islamic era and the capital of the city of Maragheh at the during of the reign of Holakukhan. In the Ilkhani period, the city of Maragheh was the bedrock of religious developments, and followers of religions such as Christianity (Rashidawe, 1368, 190) and Buddhists, they have had sanctuary and ritual sites for themselves. In this period, Christians and followers of Buddhas had a majority, and Muslims were a minority. Also, during this period, a group of Mongols tended to be Buddhist, and Buddhist temples were scattered throughout Iran. (Eshpouler 1368, 187) Therefore, measuring the location of this sanctuary with mosques indicates the essential difference of this handcraft space with mosques. also The presence of the altar on the western wall, which is very similar to the altar of the Buddhist temple of sinless Imam Zadeh, it is a testimony to the non-Islamic nature of this sanctuary. Maragheh in the form of a master’s degree thesis in the field of archeology (Sattar Nejad, 1395). In this article, we have tried to describe the nature of its user and Gahengari by using of archaeological approaches after the introduction of the rocky sanctuary of the village of Gheshlagh. With these interpretations, this study seeks to answer two fundamental questions about the rocky handcrafts cliffs of Kohulu Mechid. 
1) What was the relative Gahengari and the time of the formation of the handcrafts cliffs? 
2) the nature of the handcraft sanctuary belonging to which religious groups? 
The hypotheses considered in relation to the above questions are: User as one of the ritualistic sites of the followers non-Islamic religions residing in Maragheh, at the illkhani period, especially the Buddhists, and the time of its creation done in a comparative way on the basis of analogical Gahengari principles, which is relates to the period of Illkhani. There is evidence of this claim at the rocky handcraft sanctuary of Kooholo Mached, which has been investigated in order to do research. 
 
Conclusion
The creation of a altar, a dome cover, decorative niches, and the delineation of the rocky structure of the Kooholo Mechid, all of which are associated with the ritualistic user of the rocky effect. This rocky structure is comparable to non-Muslim religions and sanctuaries religions, espasially Buddhist, in terms of its location, its landscape, its altar, and the appearance of niches. Accordingly, the aforementioned rocky sanctuary was established as one of the ritualistic sites of the Christian or Buddhist period of the Ilkhanid, in which the space pagoda hypothesis is more evident. Thus, during the period of the Ilkhanis of the Maragheh capital and the formation of a scientific observatory collection , peaceful policy and support of the Illkhani’s authorities from Christians and Buddhists, it created worship places for these religions in the rocks of the city of Maragheh. But the reform of the Ghazan Khan period, which was based on the destruction of Buddhist and Christian temples, caused the burning of this sanctuary and its user modification as a mosque. 

 Abstract
The Varjuy rocky temple is one of the prominent buildings with religious purposes and troglodytic architecture on the slopes of Sahand volcanic mountain. It is located in Varjuy village, Maragheh City, East Azerbaijan Province. Verjui Village is located Varouy in the vernacular. The name “Varouy” is composed of two words of “var” with the meaning of sun and “ouy” with the meaning of house in Turkish. So, the name “Varouy” means the house of sun. This name plays a key role in understanding the meaning of this valuable Varjuy complex. Maragheh City was one of the most important cities in Azerbaijan during the Seljuk period. As the first capital of the Il-Khanid (or Mongol) dynasty, this city played a key role in the developments of that era. Maragheh city, with an area of about 5388 km2, is located on the southern slopes of Sahand Mountain in East Azerbaijan Province. It is located in 130 km of Tabriz and limited to Tabriz city from the north, Hashtrood City from the east, Urmia Lake from the west and Miandoab City from the south.
Keywords: Maragheh, Troglodytic Architectural, Varjuy Rocky Temple, Architectural Decoration, Inscription.

Introduction
Today, that room of this temple which was decorated with Muqarnas is known as Mullah Maso’om Imamzadeh, which is the burial site of Mullah Maso’om Maragheh (a scholar lived in Maragheh in the 13th century AH). Until recently, it has been the dome-shaped cover above the openings of Varjuy Rocky Temple but is now destroyed. In previous references, less attention has been paid to the architectural decorations of this troglodytic complex, and in general, many previous studies have repeated the history, use and rock reliefs of this troglodytic buiding. Since no specialized studies have been done on the architectural decorations of this complex so far despite a variety of architectural decorations in this building and the evidence of the use of decorations made by materials other than stone in this building, the present study aims to recognize and introduce the architectural decorations applied in the troglodytic architecture of Varjuy rocky temple in Maragheh. Considering the research objective, field study (coding, photography of architectural spaces and architectural decorations, and detailed exploration of them) and library study are applied to verify the obtained information and then, content analysis is performed. The present study is applied-developmental research.
Data collection methods: A. Review and study of Persian texts in the field of troglodytic architecture will be done to extract historical and technical information. B. Field study and documentation of the status quo: Field studies will be performed to understand the troglodytic architecture of Varjuy Rocky Temple and especially, its architectural decorations. In the present study, observation is one of the necessary methods for deep understanding of the nature of the phenomena and variables studied. C. Analysis: After analyzing the information obtained from field studies and observations, at this stage, a more detailed analysis of the data and identified components will be performed and in this regard, important concepts and points will be extracted.
The review of historical and comparative studies on the troglodytic architecture of Varjuy Rocky Temple showed that there is still no single opinion about the uses of this complex in different periods, especially about its temple use. However, current studies show that this building was used in the Middle Islamic period (around the Il-Khanid period). Moreover, after introducing the spaces and their architectural and structural features, as well as studying the surfaces of the interior of this rocky temple, it was found that this building has architectural decorations, which have been not described and studied in other studies on this building. In addition, there are shortcomings in the identification and accurate reporting of the verses carved on the building body, as well as the lack of recognition of architectural layers and decorations of this building in previous studies. This building has been considered and applied in the Middle Islamic period and some architectural decorations of calcareous mortars have been executed on the body of its main Gonbad-khaneh (the space under the dome), and there is a need to revise the previous interpretations of rock reliefs of this building. We now know that in addition to rocky decorations in the form of Quranic Surahs, interior plaster is observed in the troglodytic architecture of this building and all the decorations in the interior of the main Gonbad-Khaned (V-6 space) were of plaster and not rock. In addition, the plaster has been renewed in different periods and different plastering techniques have been used for the interior.
Another point is that in most of the interior spaces, a plastering mortar has been used. The plaster in this building is considered architectural decoration. Considering the stiffness, color and materials of the mortar, it seems a kind of Pozzolan-lime mortar. The mortar has been applied in several layers, all of which belong to the Middle Islamic period, because there are Thuluth calligraphies below these layers. In the architectural decorations of this collection, the inscription has been executed in two different spaces using two different techniques: carving technique in space V4 and painted inscription technique in space V6. This point was identified for the first time in this research. Evidence shows the three layers of mortar applied to the dado of the main Gonbad-Khane of the studied temple. Among the characteristics of the abovementioned mortar, one can mention the high stiffness, gray color, low thickness and similarity of the bottom layer to the surrounding stone. Evidence also indicates the use of red pigment in the structure of the mortar, which made it red (top layer). Also, in the middle layer, plant fibers have been used extensively and their remains can be clearly seen.

Abstract
One of the main types of rock monuments is hand-carved ritual-religious spaces. These handmade spaces have long been considered, sanctified and respected by religious social groups who were committed to religious practices. From this perspective, it can be stated that Maragheh region has been one of the most important, rich and long-lasting centers of ritual-religious architecture in the history and culture of Iran. In an era, in which ritual manmade spaces have lost their influence in many areas of ritual prosperity and sacred power, some ritual-religious manmade spaces in Maragheh still have an active and prominent presence. Accordingly, the present study, while identifying, introducing and explaining the special features of the ritual-religious hand-carved spaces of this region, has also addressed the formation factor of these ritual spaces; and seeks to answer the following question: to how many types are the ritual-religious hand-carved spaces in Maragheh divided? Therefore, along with the field study method applied for recording and explaining the current situation, library studies were also used to identify the factors influencing the formation of ritual-religious architecture in Maragheh. The results of the studies indicate that 8 religious-religious rock monuments have been identified in the county of Maragheh. Typologically, the above-mentioned rock architecture can be classified into surface and subsurface forms. Also, in terms of typology and classification of the application nature, these works have had different uses, such as: a) mosques, b) monasteries, c) churches, d) Buddhist temples, e) open temples, f) crypts, and h) rock graves. Many of these sites are now ruined, however, some spaces have retained their sacred position and are being used with some modifications.  
Keywords: Maragheh, Rock Architecture, Typology, Ritual-Religious Use.

Introduction
The county of Maragheh is located in the northwestern part of Iran in the province of East Azerbaijan, on the southern slopes of Sahand Mountain. According to national divisions, the county of Maragheh has two districts (central and Sarajo) and six villages. The county of Maragheh consists of two separate parts: the northern areas of the county that are mountainous and the central and southern areas which consist of plains and flatlands (Khamachi, 1991: 459). Sahand mountainous mass is one of the most important topographic features of the county, and the southern slopes of this mountain form the configuration of the main part of the county. The general slope of the land in this county is from north to south and the three rivers of Leylan Chay, Mordagh Chay, and Sufi Chay are the important rivers that supply the water needed by the region (Morvarid, 1981: 12).
In the county of Maragheh, numerous historical monuments are remained from different periods, some of which are used as ritual-religious hand-carved spaces. Ritual-religious hand-carved spaces in Maragheh, in particular and other areas in general, have long been considered, sanctified and respected by social groups, according to the existing evidence; Therefore, in this paper, it has been attempted to explain the formation factor, analyze the use nature of spaces and the period in which they have been applied using the a spatial archeological approach and archeological surveys after introducing the ritual hand-carved spaces. The current research has been conducted in order to answer this fundamental question: to how many types are the ritual-religious hand-carved spaces in Maragheh divided? Moreover, the purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze the typology of the mentioned hand-carved spaces. 
Methods: The present study has been conducted using a descriptive-analytical method and data collection has been performed using library methods and field visits from a large number of hand-carved spaces in different parts of the county of Maragheh.
The Significance and Necessity of Research: The rocky and cave nature of worship places and the study limitations of the ritual-religious hand-carved spaces in Iran have caused any religious hand-carved spaces to be associated with Mithraism; however, little evidence of Mithraism has been identified in these sacred spaces. Accordingly, by conducting studies on the ritual-religious hand-carved architecture in the county of Maragheh, it is possible to provide a comprehensive classification of this type of architecture and determine the general appearance and nature of their spaces in this region. 
Research Question and Hypotheses: The current research has been conducted in order to answer this fundamental question: to how many types are the ritual-religious hand-carved spaces in the county of Maragheh divided? One of the hypotheses that can be proposed in the present study is that the ritual-religious spaces of Maragheh have been formed in two periods: the first period is related to the pre-Islamic period, which was influenced by the Urartian culture. The second period is related to the Islamic period. In the Islamic period, the greatest influence in shaping these spaces has been the influence of beliefs from eastern cultures, especially Buddhists and Christians.

Conclusion 
Hand-carved architecture is a special type of architecture that has been created by humans in order to adapt themselves to their environment. In the extensive territory of Iran, due to climatic, ritual and cultural diversity, remnants of this type of architecture can be seen in its different regions. One of the important reasons for the tendency of human beings in different schools towards the rock architecture was the ritual and religious structure of the society, which required turning to rocks and mountains. In the meantime, the ritual-religious hand-carved spaces of the county of Maragheh have been a manifestation of the spiritual life and cultural knowledge of the residents of this region. These spaces have a special place in the whole beliefs of the residents of the region; this has made the decorative elements, architecture and special location of these spaces to be different from other rock works. Following what has been discussed in the text of the paper, the results of library and field studies of hand-carved spaces have demonstrated the influence of ritual and religious structures of Maragheh society in the formation of some of these spaces. Due to the special geographical location of Maragheh region throughout history, the region has witnessed different ethnic groups and special religious beliefs. According to this view, the ritual-religious spaces of the region in the pre-Islamic ages have been created in the form of hand-carved burial spaces (crypts); and in the Islamic period, these spaces have been mostly carved into rock contexts in the form of hand-carved worship temples. 
In the mid-Islamic eras, especially during the Ilkhanid period, Maragheh was the center of various beliefs and this factor has formed the basis for the formation of ritual-religious spaces of Buddhist, Christian and Islamic followers. From this perspective, the county of Maragheh, especially on the banks of Sufi-Chay River, is one of the lively, active, and rich centers of tradition and ritual hand-carved heritage. Accordingly, most of the investigated worship spaces are concrete, objective and real manifestations of the cultural-religious continuity and spiritual life of the people of this region from the Ilkhanid period, and even today some of these places have retained their sacred and ritual status.