Meymand’s History
The village of Meymand or simply Maymand, which has been inscribed in the list of the UNESCO World Heritage in 2015, is one of the most exceptional living complexes that has been formed according to the needs of human beings and the environmental conditions.
This prehistoric cave village is in the central district of Shahr-e Babak County in Kerman Province, Iran. This village is one of the few ones which its rocky architecture is widely used in the whole structure of the village. One of the main differences of Meymand from other similar cases is that people are living and life is still going on in there. In this ancient village, people are living in rocky and handmade houses with its history going back to 12000 years ago.
In other words, Meymand village is an outstanding achievement of the genius of human art in the distant past, in such a way that with minimum facilities they made an amazing heritage. This village after many years has remained relatively intact and has a high resistance to heat and cold which is a result of being dug underground.
Meymand Architecture
As mentioned above briefly, Meymand’s architecture and structure is what makes it unique and remarkable. Meymand’s houses weren’t built by laying stones and bricks together. It’s been shaped by the removal of a bunch of soil to make a shelter. That’s why there are many niches by removing masses of soil to make room for places to put blankets, pillows, dishes, boxes, and lights.
Generally, These houses include one or more rooms and stables which make a ‘Kicheh’ in Meymand dialect. It means an alley. There are 400 Kicheh’s in this village. This unit has a shared entrance and in the staircase, there might be a stable on one side and a living room on the other side. Also, Rooms in Kicheh aren’t geometrically regular. For example, there is a 3*4 room with 1.90 to 2.10-meter height in most Kichehs, the biggest Kicheh doesn’t exceed 90 square meters. Experts believe that smoke from cooking and burning firewood for heating results in isolation and prevents them from destruction.
