Impressions and Images of Iran: The Troglodyte Village of Meymand

After the southeast, I headed back to the center of the country. My next destination was Shiraz, and again, thanks to the guys in my hotel in Kerman, I was able to arrange a taxi to take me from Kerman to Shiraz. It's a little expensive doing it this way as opposed to taking the bus, but I at least would be able to see a few sights on the way, which are otherwise hard to reach if I was just going with public transportation. One of these sights is Meymand, a troglodyte village, in the middle of nowhere.



They say that this village consisting of caves dug in a valley has been continuously inhabited for the last 3000 years. The population is definitely low here, they say there are just 60 people living here, and the old women sell herbs on the visiting tourists. The interesting thing is that it is a fully functioning town: there is a mosque, a town hall, even a hotel. And yes, if I wanted to stay here for the night, I could.

Anyway, I didn't. I just spent an hour exploring the caves. They say that Cappadocia in Turkey is similar, but this one is smaller, and definitely with fewer tourists.