KANDOVAN
Kandovan is a historic village in Sahand Rural District in the Central District of Osku County, East Azerbaijan, Iran. It is situated in the foothills of Mount Sahand, near the city of Osku. It took us less than an hour to get there from Tabriz by car. The village exemplifies manmade cliff dwellings which are still inhabited. The troglodyte homes, excavated inside volcanic rocks and tuffs similar to dwellings in the Turkish region of Cappadocia, are locally called "karaan". The cone form of the houses is the result of lahar flow consisting of porous, round and angular pumice together with other volcanic particles. At the 2006 census, the village population was 601, in 168 families.
It is full of tourists on Fridays, the vast majority of whom are Iranians from large cities (Tabriz, Tehran, etc.). The area on both sides of the river in the lower part of the village is completely comercialised. Following the advice of our driver we came early (at around 8.30 am), which was wise as on the way back we passed by a 2km continuous line made of cars waiting for their turn to get inside the village.
