The Cappadocia of Iran - Kandovan, Osku

The town was divided into two the older higher section with houses carved out of the sandstone and the lower more modern section where most of the shops and everyday business takes place.

We had extremely high hopes for this known gem of northern Iran and its beauty did not fail to wow us. Little needs to be written as the pictures speak for the unusualness of this village and the resilience of a population who have elected to carve their homes out of these strange conical-shaped geological formations, and yes they still live in them.

Occasionally we caught glimpse into the homes and they appeared to have very low ceilings and two to three rooms that went well back into the sandstone formation. Some were two or three stories, a marvel of carving professionalism. The picture above is actually one big home. The animals slept in a large room behind that wood door on the right.

A few modern touches are added to some homes such as this tiled staircase, little balcony and recessed windows as seen above. Late April and the mountains above the village are still thickly covered with snow. Within the village there were still pockets of snow which made for slippery walking. Narelle had a few slides