Iran · Markazi Province
Where to Stay in Arāk, Markazi Province
Arāk is the capital of Markazi province and a major industrial city, founded in 1808 and long known as Soltan Abad.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Arāk
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Three levels of government share one district here, and that makes the Central District the default base for anyone whose trip involves an office rather than a monument. Industry books a lot of the rooms. Arāk is a working industrial city before it is anything else, so a good share of its rooms answer to business travel rather than to sightseeing.
That shapes what is available. Arāk County brings the rest of the traffic into the same centre. A heritage stay looks to the older streets.
The Sheikh Abolhassan Mosque, Hasanpur House, and the Haj Hossein Khakbaz Mohseni House belong to that fabric, and a room near them puts the walking part of the visit outside the door instead of at the end of a drive. Haj Wakil Castle is the other anchor. Saint Mesrop Church and the Imperial Bank Building fill out the same circuit, and the Tomb of Aqa Nuroddin Araqi adds a devotional stop to it.
Pick by purpose: the Central District if you came for the province's business, the old streets if you came for the houses and the mosque.
About Arāk
Industry defines the working city.
What is Arāk known for?
Arāk is a major industrial centre and the capital of Markazi province, of Arāk County, and of the Central District, a stack of three roles that puts every level of local government in the same city. The old name still circulates. Soltan Abad is the other name the city answers to, and the heritage that survives from its founding in 1808 onward is what visitors come to see.
Haj Wakil Castle, the Sheikh Abolhassan Mosque, and the Imperial Bank Building are the names that recur, with Saint Mesrop Church among them.
What are the main landmarks in Arāk?
Haj Wakil Castle carries the weight. The Sheikh Abolhassan Mosque and the Tomb of Aqa Nuroddin Araqi hold the devotional end of the list, while Saint Mesrop Church shows that more than one congregation has built here. Houses account for much of the rest.
Hasanpur House and the Haj Hossein Khakbaz Mohseni House survive as named domestic buildings, and the Imperial Bank Building stands for its commercial architecture.
What is the history of Arāk?
Arāk was founded in 1808. The date is recent enough that the surviving fabric is domestic and civic: houses, a mosque, a castle, and a bank rather than the layered monuments of a town with a longer record. The founding date is one of the few hard numbers the city's record supplies, and 1808 sets the earliest limit on anything standing in Arāk.
Soltan Abad was the name it carried. Hasanpur House, the Haj Hossein Khakbaz Mohseni House, and Haj Wakil Castle are the survivors of that older Arāk, with the Sheikh Abolhassan Mosque among them. Industry rewrote the city later.
Arāk grew into a major industrial centre, and that turn is what its name carries beyond Markazi province. The Imperial Bank Building is the commercial monument on the list, and Saint Mesrop Church the one built for a Christian congregation. Government followed the growth.
Arāk holds the capital role for Markazi province, for Arāk County, and for the Central District, which concentrates provincial administration, county administration, and city services in one place. The Tomb of Aqa Nuroddin Araqi keeps a personal name in the same record.
Where is Arāk?
Markazi province takes its capital from this city. Arāk sits at the centre of that province's administration as capital of Markazi province, of Arāk County, and of the Central District, so the map of local government resolves to a single point here. This ground falls in the subtropical band.
That band runs warmer than the temperate zone above it, and the seasons here follow the northern hemisphere's calendar. Arāk County spreads around the built-up area, with the Central District covering the city itself.
What is the climate of Arāk?
The subtropical band sets the terms here. Summer runs hot and long, and the cold arrives around the turn of the year, the ordinary swing of a subtropical position in the northern hemisphere. Industry works through both.
For a visitor, the months between the extremes are the ones that suit walking between the Sheikh Abolhassan Mosque, Hasanpur House, and Haj Wakil Castle rather than crossing the city by car.
How do you get to Arāk?
Arāk is where the province's business converges. As capital of Markazi province, of Arāk County, and of the Central District, the city takes the traffic that provincial administration and a major industrial base generate between them. Arrivals reach the Central District first.
That is where the offices and the shops are gathered, and the heritage names, the Imperial Bank Building and the Tomb of Aqa Nuroddin Araqi among them, sit within the same city rather than out in Arāk County.
More cities in Markazi Province
Updated August 2026