Kandovan Village: Modern Day Cave Dwellings

During our recent trip to Iran, we got a chance to visit Kandovan, an ancient tourist village in Northwest corner of Iran near Osku and Tabriz. Kandovan is famous for its magnificent troglodyte dwellings, some of which are thought to be at least 700 years old and still inhabited. It is just incredible how the whole village seems to have been carved out of stone. The story has it that the village was first created when those fleeing the advancing Mongol army took to the caves to hide. The particular stone structures are believed to have been formed by ash and debris from an eruption of currently inactive Sahand volcano, and hardened over thousands of years. The natural insulation provided by the surrounding rocks makes these modern cave dwellings extremely energy efficient keeping the interiors warm and cool during winters and summers respectively. Kandovan is also famous for its scenic beauty and more so for its mineral spring water, which is believed to have healing properties for certain kidney diseases.

We arrived in Kandovan around noon time, and thus had to deal with the harsh midday sunlight. Midday light typically results in excessive contrast, blown out highlights,  hard shadows, and generally unflattering and washed out images, and as such, is typically hated by most photographers. Unfortunately, we were very short on time, and thus had no option but to try our best in capturing and processing our pictures. Shown below are a few of our pictures. Hope you like them…