Varzaneh :Last Civilization On The Zayanderud River

۱۰۰۰-year-old Ghoortan Citadel

The ancient Ghoortan old citadel is located 12km west of Varzaneh, and you can reach it directly from Isfahan, being 90km east of Isfahan city. It’s located on the bank of the Zayanderud river and has survived natural disasters and many wars for 1000 years. Having very thick walls made of adobe mud brick) made it a protected complex for people living in the region. The thickness of walls varies from 3 to 4m and they are about 9m high. The citadel has an area of 40,000 square meters. Nowadays, only four families are living inside. The citadel is containing four mosques, a pigeon house, a water reservoir, a mill and many houses. It is protected by fourteen round towers and you would enter through two gateways.

Dovecote

In dry regions, like Varzaneh district, the droppings were prized by farmers and collected for fertilizing their arid fields. From Varzaneh to the west, until Ezhieh (a town 25km west of Varzaneh), and also from south to Hassanabad (a town 25km south of Varzaneh) there are plenty of dovecotes or pigeon houses. The dovecotes are also called Kabootarkhaneh in Persian literature, which means simply house of pigeons. There is conflicting information about the antiquity of such towers. The estimation is from 1000 to 300 hundreds years old, quite a big gap.

Life in this region is very connected to farming, as more than 70 percent of people’s businesses are directly or indirectly connected to agriculture. In below picture, you can see one of the pigeon houses of Varzaneh by the close view, located on the north at Zayanderud bank. It had been the host of 7000 pairs of pigeons, having an area of 250 square metres and being 13m high. This structure much probably dates backs to 300 years ago, the Safavid era. However, there is a lot of argument about its exact date of establishment. The camel-mill is located next to the river.

Camel-mill Complex

An old system of grinding wheat has been revived for using male camels. Historically, the last time Iranian were using this system was a century ago. Mr. Mohammadi, the owner and founder of the camel-mill, is using it mostly for tourist purposes, though he grinds wheat occasionally for family and relatives. He sings, while pulling the rope of camel, a very nice folklore song. The building is designed in the completely traditional manner, as you can see in the pictures. The camel-mill is located off the road of the cemetery of town. Mr Mohammadi will offer you tea if somebody visits camel-mill.

Caravansary

Caravansary, Varzaneh, Isfahan

There is a saying that King Abbas I established 999 caravanserais in the Persian empire to facilitate and promote trade and traveling, one of them is in Varzaneh. You can find this caravansary in eastern exit road of Varzaneh, being about 400 years old.

Other touristic spots

There are many other attractions worth sightseeing, including windmills around river and small waterfalls over Zayanderud river. Shakh-kenar waterfall is a must-see in way going to wetland. There is a hot spring also in the way to the salt lake, closed to Hasan-Abad village, where you can swim all the year for free.