The village carved in grey cones
Kandovan
A village in north-west Iran where homes are hollowed out of pale cone-shaped rocks of volcanic ash.
Why Kandovan is volcanic tuff grey
Kandovan is a village on the slopes of Mount Sahand, an old volcano south of Tabriz. Its houses are cut into tall cones of soft rock, formed from volcanic ash and debris and shaped by wind and water. The rock is pale grey to buff, and the whole village takes that colour, broken only by wooden doors, small windows and washing lines. The homes, some with several floors, are said to stay cool in summer and warm in winter. Local tradition holds that people first settled here about seven centuries ago, sheltering from invaders. Families still live in the cones. The green valley below is used for grazing, and its honey is sold to visitors.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Kandovan
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Kandovan, Osku" on Wikipedia. If you know Kandovan and we have it wrong, tell us.
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The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Bukchon Kr: kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Isfahan Ir: Pedram forouzanfar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Yazd Ir: Ninara, CC BY 2.0, source
- Shiraz Ir: آرش (Arche), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Cusco Pe: gertrudis2010, CC BY-SA 3.0, source