Kandovan
Kandovan village · East Azerbaijan
Photo: Faridtabrizi53 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), photo taken 18 May 2018, as published on Street Art Utopia.
In Kandovan, a village in East Azerbaijan, Iran, the houses are rooms carved by hand into cone-shaped rock formations. UN Tourism's 2023 profile describes it as one of the few rocky villages where people still live. How old the settlement is remains disputed. Source Source Checked
Seen Nov 2023 — a dated photograph on Wikimedia Commons shows the village on 18 November 2023, a month after UN Tourism's profile (19 October 2023) described people still living in the rock houses. Source Source Checked
💡 4 things to know
- Rooms inside rock conesHistory Hit says every room of the cliff houses is carved out of stone, in formations also known as Karan. UN Tourism describes cone-shaped stone houses carved by hand at the foot of the mountain. Source Source Checked
- Kitchens and stables tooAccording to the Persian news agency Tasnim, the rooms inside each cone serve as living spaces, kitchens, and even stores and stables. Source Reported
- Its age is not settledHistory Hit gives a likely late 13th- or early 14th-century foundation; UN Tourism cites estimates of 3,000 and 6,000 to 7,000 years. These are competing estimates, not a verified date. Source Source Conflicting
- Homes that host visitorsAccording to UN Tourism, local women turned part of their houses into lodgings, and the hive-like look of the stone houses encouraged the village to make honey a main product. Source Reported
📍 Where it is
🗓️ Sightings
- 201430 Mar
Tasnim describes the rock village and its rooms
- 201818 May
Faridtabrizi53 photographs Kandovan's rock houses
- 202127 Jul
History Hit describes the village
- 202319 Oct
UN Tourism profiles the inhabited village
- 202318 Nov
Aliasgharlotfali photographs the village
Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark records or reports; red stamps mark loss. Publication dates are not camera dates.
🗞️ In the sources
“pea-colored, cave-like stone houses carved by hand in the shape of a cone at the foot of the mountain”
“Every room of the cliff houses is carved out of stone”
“درون هر مخروط، اتاقهایی را میتوان دید که از آنها بهعنوان فضاهای نشیمن، آشپزخانه و حتی انبار و طویله استفاده میشود.”
Inside each cone you can see rooms used as living spaces, kitchens and even stores and stables.
✅ The facts
- Builders
- Not identified in the sources Source Unconfirmed
- Founded
- Late 13th/early 14th century (History Hit); 7th century AH from elders and a Tehran architecture study (Tasnim); 3,000–7,000 years (UN Tourism, unattributed estimates) Source Source Source Conflicting
🔗 Related
- Houses in the Wrong Place (12 Photos vol. 2) — Street Art Utopia
- Houses in the Wrong Place (10 Photos) — Street Art Utopia
- UN Tourism: Best Tourism Villages — Kandovan
- All Artwork Files
All sources & image credits
- tourism-villages.unwto.org: Kandovan (19 October 2023)
- historyhit.com: Kandovan Village (27 July 2021)
- tasnimnews.ir: Travel to houses in the heart of the mountain (30 March 2014, in Persian)
- Wikimedia Commons: Kandavan village by Faridtabrizi53 (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons: 20231118 Kandovan Village by Aliasgharlotfali (18 November 2023)
- Image: Faridtabrizi53 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), as published on Street Art Utopia; a 16:9 share version was made from it.
Last checked: 31 October 2026. How we verify art