Garmeh

Garmeh is an oasis village of about a hundred and fifty people in the Dasht-e Kavir, built in mud brick around a spring that has supported settlement here for a very long time, with date palms, small irrigated plots and a ruined citadel on the rock above the houses. It became known outside Iran when a musician from the village opened his family house as a guesthouse in the early 2000s, and a small number of others followed, so it now has a modest visitor economy without having become a resort. Days are spent walking in the palm groves, climbing to the citadel, or going out into the desert and to the salt flats; evenings are spent on the roof. The scale is very small and the atmosphere is the reason people stay.

What you actually see

• The spring and palm grove - the water the whole village depends on.
• The ruined citadel - a mud-brick fort on the rock above the houses.
• Mud-brick village lanes - the settlement built entirely from local earth.
• Rooftop evenings - the standard way the guesthouses are used.

When to go

October to April. Two days at least, since the drive is long and the point is to slow down. Winter nights are cold. Iranian holidays fill the few guesthouses, which must be booked ahead.

Honest expectations

Accommodation is limited to a handful of guesthouses with shared bathrooms and intermittent hot water. It is a very long drive from any city. There is nothing to do beyond walking and sitting, which is either the appeal or the problem. Power cuts happen.

Nearby

Mesr is further into the desert; Khur is the nearest town with services.