Kandovan Rocky Village Volcanic Troglodyte Homes
Visit Kandovan village near Tabriz where inhabitants live in homes carved into the volcanic rock cones — similar to Cappadocia in Turkey — creating one of the world's most extraordinary living troglodyte settlements, continuously inhabited for over 700 years in its rocky mountain setting.
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Mountain Road Approach
Drive the mountain road from Tabriz to Kandovan through increasingly dramatic volcanic landscape where the distinctive rock cones of the Sahand mountain area become visible as the road climbs into the mountains, the approach building anticipation for the extraordinary village that appears ahead.
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Village Panorama
Stop at the viewpoint above Kandovan for the panoramic view of the entire village where the conical volcanic rock formations with their carved windows and doorways create a landscape that looks more like a fantasy than a human settlement, the village of approximately 170 rock-carved homes stretching across the mountainside.
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Rock Cone Homes
Walk among the rock cone homes of Kandovan where the soft volcanic tuff has been carved into multi-story dwellings — with carved stairs, windows, and interior rooms — that take advantage of the rock's natural insulating properties to remain cool in summer and warm in winter.
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Village Life Encounter
Meet the inhabitants of Kandovan who maintain the troglodyte tradition, their homes modernized with electricity and running water but essentially unchanged in structure from the dwellings carved by their ancestors when refugees from the Mongol invasions first took shelter in these rocks in the 13th century.
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Local Products Market
Browse the small market where Kandovan's inhabitants sell local products including honey from the mountain flowers, homemade dairy products, and traditional crafts, the village economy supplemented by the tourism that the extraordinary rock settlement has attracted since it became widely known.
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Sahand Mountain Views
Look up at the Sahand volcanic mountain rising above Kandovan where the ancient extinct volcano created the tuff deposits that made this extraordinary settlement possible, the mountain landscape above the village offering hiking opportunities through the volcanic terrain that produced this geological wonder.