31 March 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Life continues in Iran’s 12,000-year-old settlement “Meymand village”

At the south-eastern Iranian province of Kerman near Shahr-Babak city, there is a village dating back to the Stone Age. Meymand is a village of troglodytes – cave dwellers.

Meymand is 35 kilometers northeast of Shahr-e Babak, a city in Kerman province, on the road that connects Tehran to the port of Bandar Abbas in the south.

Meymand is believed to be a primary human residence in the Iranian Plateau, dating back to 12,000 years ago. It’s hard to fathom just how long a village like Maymand in Iran has been around.

Meymand has been providing cozy caves and rock shelters for early inhabitants of the Iranian Plateau some 12,000 years ago. The settlement has been continuously inhabited since then, making it one of Iran’s oldest surviving villages.

The village is a UNESCO world heritage site that was awarded the Melina Mercouri International Prize by UNESCO in 2005. The prize’s goal is to recognize exceptional instances of efforts in preserving and enriching the world’s significant cultural landscapes.

Maymand village
This 12,000-year-old Iranian cave village has been continuously inhabited for over 3,000 years.

The staggering age of the settlement at Maymand was determined by fragments of stone etchings that established the existence of human settlers.

 However the defining characteristic of the village, namely its 300+ in-ground cave homes are not nearly so old, only dating back 3-4,000 years. Hand-dug houses are carved into a range of hills, beside the natural caves. They have been the residences of the local people since 3,000 years ago, and they are still in use.

It is thought that the cave dwellings began as religious sites but slowly evolved into permanent houses as settlers stayed on the spot longer and longer. As the locals tell it, their ancestors carved out the simple cave homes using a type of hard, sharpened stone that can be found in the area as opposed to traditional tools. The single room dwellings are stacked atop one another four and five tall sometimes, yet each of the barren caves has room for its own stove area.

Maymand village
Meymand, Iran

Compared to Kandovan, another troglodytic village in the country that has been inhabited for 700 years, Meymand is really ancient; it is, in fact, one of the oldest surviving villages as 10,000-year-old stone engravings and 6,000-year-old potteries were discovered.

Some 130 and 150 people are currently dwelling in the village many of whom are semi-nomadic shepherds, living in the village caves during the winter months when the population is at its peak. They move to higher pastures in summer, leaving about 60 people behind.

The villagers have done little to add color to the natural earth tones of the landscape. Their homes and streets have no potted flowers or ornamental plants. The village’s stark appearance is complemented by the spartan life of its inhabitants.

Iran's 12,000-year-old settlement
Iran’s 12,000-year-old settlement.

There are a total of 406 residential cave units with a total of 2,560 rooms. Some of the cave apartments are five stories high. A large number of the units are deserted.

The dwelling units were made by burrowing into the hillside’s soft sedimentary rock deposited in layers during the Mesozoic age some 100 to 200 million years ago. The concrete-like consistency of Meymand’s sedimentary rock is soft enough to be shaped by manual labor while still being hard enough to support the roofs of the cave units.

Some lower cave dwellings are grouped together. Their entrance trenches meet on a terrace used for family and social gatherings.

The history village in meymand
Meymand Village, Iran.  Source

There is also an eight-room guest house near the entrance to the village, but visitors can sometimes find lodgings with some of the residents. The guesthouse has felt carpets on the floors, beds carved into the walls, warm lighting, and shared but clean bathrooms with steam showers. The caves may have a sort of barren beauty, but they are not exactly luxury accommodations.

Iran is a country rich in history, and Maymand is both one of the country’s oldest and most picturesque villages. On 4 July 2015, the village was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list.

Related Articles

2000-Year-Old Marvel: The Mystery of the Parthian Battery

1 March 2024

1 March 2024

The Parthian Battery is believed to be about 2000 years old (from the Parthian period, roughly 250 BCE to CE...

Iran’s legendary ruined city “Susa”

12 August 2021

12 August 2021

Ancient Susa is one of the oldest cities in the world. The Elamite, Persian, and Parthian empires formerly ruled over...

“Dholavira,” the settlement with the world’s oldest signboard

16 August 2021

16 August 2021

Dholavira, also known as Kotda (which means “big fort”), is one of the islands in Kutch’s vast desert. The city...

The Dispilio Tablet: may be the earliest known written text

7 January 2022

7 January 2022

Although traditional archeology claims that writing was not invented in Sumer between 3000 and 4000 BC, an artifact that contradicted...

The Most Unusual Places İn The World

10 February 2021

10 February 2021

There are countless beautiful places in the world. All of them are interesting and great than each other. We have...

The Newgrange of Ireland older than the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge

3 June 2021

3 June 2021

Newgrange is a 5,200-year-old ancient tomb located in the Boyne Valley in Ireland’s Ancient East. Archaeologists have classified Newgrange as...

The best-preserved Roman ruins outside of Italy can be seen in Jerash the ancient city of Jordan’s

2 December 2021

2 December 2021

Jerash is a magnificent old Roman city located around 50 kilometers from Amman, Jordan. Jerash is considered the most well-preserved...

Martyr Skeletons Dressed in Jewels “Catacomb Saints”

16 September 2021

16 September 2021

The story of the saints in the catacombs of Northern Europe is a peculiar story. It is rooted in the...

The Oldest-Known Center of Prophecy “Claros”

16 June 2021

16 June 2021

Claros is an ancient Ionian settlement located in the hamlet of Ahmetbeyli near Ozdere, approximately 50 kilometers south of Izmir....

Ireland’s most beautiful round tower and Romanesque architecture

21 August 2021

21 August 2021

Romanesque means “from the Romans”, “descendant of the Romans”. This architectural style is called “Norman architectural style” in England and...

Incredible Mayan Inventions and Achievements

31 July 2022

31 July 2022

The Mayans excelled at agriculture, pottery, writing, calendars, and arithmetic, leaving an incredible quantity of spectacular architecture and symbolic artwork...

The Kyrgyz epic ‘Manas’ manuscripts were included in the UNESCO Memory of the World

10 June 2023

10 June 2023

Manuscripts of the Kyrgyz epic “Manas” by narrator Sagymbay Orozbakov have been inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World...

“If this site (Sharda temple)is restored and conserved, it will attract thousands of Hindus and Buddhists from Kashmir and the rest of the world”

7 August 2021

7 August 2021

Sharda Peeth, a historic learning institution located 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Muzaffarabad, the capital and largest city of Pakistan-administered...

Reconstruction of Ancient iconic buildings Using Architectural GIFs

14 January 2022

14 January 2022

Today, tourists’ perceptions of the world’s great architectural wonders are firmly focused on their current state of ruin, leaving the...

Contemporaneous with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia the Indus Valley Civilization city of ‘Mohenjo Daro’: Skilled urban planners with a reverence for the control of water

10 September 2022

10 September 2022

The Indus River Valley (or Harappan) civilization (3300-1300 BCE) lasted 2,000 years and spanned northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest...