Kharanaq

Kharanaq is two settlements: an old mud-brick village on a bluff above a river valley, abandoned when residents moved to new housing across the way, and the modern village that replaced it. The old one is the reason to stop, a tight stack of collapsing houses, covered lanes, vaulted passages and roof terraces that can be walked through, with the whole thing slowly returning to earth, which gives it a quality that restored villages do not have. Above it stands a seventeenth-century minaret that visibly shakes when pushed from the top, a phenomenon shared with a few other Iranian minarets and explained by its slender construction. A restored caravanserai below serves as a guesthouse and a Qajar bridge crosses the valley.

History

The name means "birthplace of the sun", and the village is said to have been lived in for 4,500 years. It prospered from farming, but as its water supply dried up the people left the old mud-brick town, and more than 400 now live in the new village alongside it (Wikipedia, Kharanaq).

The main sights

• The abandoned mud village - lanes and vaulted passages returning to earth.
• The shaking minaret - a seventeenth-century tower that visibly moves.
• Roof terraces walked over houses - the stacked construction of the old village.
• A restored caravanserai - now a guesthouse below the bluff.

When to go

March to May and October to November. Two hours, usually as part of a circuit with Chak Chak and Meybod from Yazd. Late afternoon light on the mud brick is best.

Practical notes

The old village is genuinely unstable, with collapsing roofs and open drops; walk carefully and stay off doubtful roofs. Climbing the minaret is often not permitted. There is no interpretation. Facilities are limited to the caravanserai.

Nearby

Chak Chak and Meybod are west; Yazd lies south.

Key facts