Kandovan Village Azerbaijan

Sadegh,

  Wow...what an amazing place filled with wonderful craftsmanship.   Thanks for sharing.  Take care, Patsy

Wonderful shot, Sadegh...lovely light and composition with nice details and historic value...my best

I'm enjoying viewing your lovely images of this very interesting village Sadegh. Beautiful work and I will enjoy revisiting. Looks like a fascinating place to visit. So much history and intriguing dwelling places.

Kind regards,always,

Gail

Wonderful shot! Warm regards, Ilkka

very beautiful photo!

i like style!

best regards!  Efim

Kandovan is an ancient village tucked away in the northwest corner of

Iran at the foothills of Mount Sahand and near the city of Tabriz. The

historical village of Kandovan is one of the three rocky villages of

the world. Houses in this village look like beehives built in the

heart of mountains.

There are two other rocky villages in the world, one in North Dakota

in the US and the other in Turkey. However, Kandovan, situated in

Oskou District, is the only rocky village of the world inhabited by

people for some 6,000 years.

A living example of human adaptation to exceptionally unusual natural

surroundings, Kandovan village is located 50 km to the south of

Tabriz, Osku, on the northern slopes of a valley at the foothills of

Mount Sahand. A river originating from the Sahand peaks passes through

the valley.

Most of the cave houses are two to four storeys in height. In a

typical four storey house, the ground or first floor is used as an

animal shelter, the next two floors are used as living areas, and the

top floor is used for storage. There are reports of tunnels connecting

towers owned by a person or family.

Legend has it that Kandovan’s first inhabitants moved there in the

13th century to escape from the invading Mongol army. They dug

hideouts in the volcanic rocks but eventually decided to settle in

these caves which they gradually developed and transformed into

multi-storey, permanent houses. Since then, many generations of their

descendants have continued living in the same houses.

The houses are known as karan in the local dialect. One interpretation

has the word Kandovan being a plural form of kando, a bee's hive.

Another interpretation says that Kandovan means Land of Unknown

Carvers. The use of 'van' to indicate the plural is found in the

Avesta: cf. ashavan. Nowadays, residents speak a Turkic dialect but

have traditional Iranian family names, names such as Kayani. The

mountains and rivers in the region have both Persian and Turkic - and

perhaps even Assyrian - names.

Thanks for your interest and comments.

Beautiful shot and really useful information. Best regards.

Thanks for all the historical and architectural info.Great picture too.

This is a very good quality image in terms of its color, lines, composition, etc.  The story and description that you have included makes us appreciate it much more.  Thank you for sharing this with us.

Amazing place and image . There is so much that we in the West never see or understand ! Bill

Wonderful explanation, and photo. This seems like a really interesting place. Maybe one day I'll get to go there... highly doubtful, but I guess it's not impossible that one day we can all just get along.

Charlie