Abyaneh Village
Serenely situated at the foot of Mt Karkas (3899m), the ancient village of Abyaneh is a warren of steep, twisting lanes and crumbling red mud-brick houses with lattice windows and fragile wooden balconies. It’s testament to both the age and isolation of Abyaneh that the elderly residents speak Middle Persian, an earlier incarnation of Farsi that largely disappeared some centuries ago, and many men still dress in the traditional wide-bottomed trousers and black waistcoats. Women’s clothing features he-jabs that cover the shoulders and are traditionally strewn with printed or embroidered red flowers.
There is an entry fee to visit the town with a check-point about a kilometre before the descent through a tree-lined avenue into town. This is to help manage the tourist influx during peak seasons.
Abyaneh is best appreciated by just meandering along the lanes and chancing upon the 14th-century Imamzadeh Yahya with its conical, blue-tiled roof, or the Zeyaratgah shrine with a pool overhung by grape vines. The views from the valley looking back at the village are some of the most iconic in central Iran.
Points Of Interest
This village, at 1700m elevation and just north of the no-torious Evin Prison, is one of Tehran’s most pleasant urban escapes
At 370,000 sq km the Caspian (Darya-ye Khazar) is five times the size of Lake Superior.That makes it by far the world’s largest lake.
This popular in town escape stretches ever more steeply up the mountainside at Tehran’s northern edge