Abyaneh, a Living Miracle
Abyaneh is a tiny village nested in the Karkass mountains between Kashan and Esfahan. It’s a living miracle in Iran. Everything about this village is peculiar: people have a distinctive way of life, their own language, traditions and even a unique cultural dress. That’s why, despite having only a few hundred native inhabitants, the village attracts domestic and international tourist crowds few times its size all year round.
There are several ways you can visit the village, but most likely, you will need to rent a car. You can make a daily return trip either from Tehran or Kashan, or you can do a stop over if you travel by car from Kashan to Esfahan. If you look for reliable contacts in Iran who can help you make a trip to Abyaneh, check out this article.
Panoramic view of Abyaneh
See & Do
People in Iran call Abyaneh a “living museum” because life in the village goes back 2500 years. In 1975, the old quarter of the village was registered on Iran’s List of National Monuments. In 2013, Abyaneh joined the list of Intangible National Heritage of Iran.
The distinctive look of Abyaneh comes from the umber-red multi-story houses, the narrow, nested alleys and inlaid doors with beautiful geometric shapes. The red color in the village is caused by the high concentration of iron in the soil. The people of Abyaneh are reputed for their pride in having a unique dress, culture and language. The language spoken in the village is called Parthian Pahlavi.
There are several points of interest you should check out when there. First, take a look at the Harpak Fire Temple, which, unlike other structures made of mud bricks, is made of stone and mortar. Next, head to The Great Mosque, one of Iran’s most beautiful mosques built during the early Islamic age. The mosque entrance door is decorated with floral patterns and inlaid Quranic verses, a stunning relic to see for anyone interested in early Islamic architecture. Afterwards, have a look at The Ziarat Shrine. This shrine is unique to the village with its inner yard fountain and the turquoise blue octagonal dome. Locals from all neighborhoods of the village hold religious ceremonies there, especially during the month of the Muharram, when I happened to visit. Finally, don’t forget to see The Khanqah. The Khanqah is a building designed specifically for gatherings of the Sufi brotherhood and a place for spiritual retreat. Sufism, as described in this Wikipedia article, is “a spiritual interpretation of Islam”. Sufism is a huge topic of its own, but I’ll briefly say here that Sufi philosophers, poets and mystics exist anywhere from Turkey to Pakistan.
Main door of The Great Mosque in Abyaneh
Entry fee for the village is 100,000 IRR. This fee goes to the establishment and development of tourism infrastructure in the village. Here below is the map as printed on one side of your entry ticket. You can see the village is tiny and a good couple of hours are enough to see everything.
Map of Abyaneh as printed on the entry ticket.
Impressions
When you walk on the narrow alleys of Abyaneh, you not only feel you are in a different place, but your sense of time changes completely. You realize that big cities might evolve drastically in a matter of decades, but there are places which stay almost unchanged in the face of time. Being there feels like you are inside a painting. A living, rural painting. Each decade, a few strokes are added by the master painter, yet, the pastoral idyllic landscape remains.
Places like Abyaneh will always stand out in the sea of touristy bucket lists. There’s nothing to really do there as a tourist except to spend a few good hours to see the historic sites. But I guess that’s not why people continue to visit this village. See, sometimes we need to be in a disconnected place to appreciate that life can have a dimension other than the fast paced daily hustle. Abyaneh is a breath of fresh air, a glimpse to another reality, a taste of the plain, ordinary rural life. It’s a place that could easily be the set for a movie about people living thousands of years ago…
For some, such places are boring. For others, it’s a curious thing to see. For me, Abyaneh is a reminder that life is vast, diverse, miraculous and manifests itself in many wondrous forms.
Copyright © Alex Kovacheva, Nomad Photos. All rights reserved.