Abyaneh is a very old village seated in the foothills of the Karkas Mountains, 40 km northwest of Natanz in Isfahan Province.
The village can be considered exceptional in its historical heritage.
The beauty and splendor of its traditional architecture have made it incomparable to any other place in the world.
Abyaneh is incredibly scenic, benefiting from crisp weather and a pleasing natural ambience.
In the Safavid era, when kings spent the cold season in Natanz, many chose Abyaneh for their stay.
Architecture
In the 2006 census, the population was 305, in 160 families. The dwellings are situated on a steep slope along the north side of Barzroud river whereby the roof of one house becomes the yard of the house above, with no partition separating the two, giving Abyaneh the appearance at first sight of a multi-storied village, with some places reaching up four levels.
The houses have decorative wooden window frames, and mostly verandas overlooking the narrow valleys, making them visually pleasing.
The exterior of houses are covered with a red soil from the nearby mine.
Due to the absence of adequate space for adding rooms and houses, it is customary for the people to build or better say carve their warehouses into the hills, a little further away near the road towards the village. These warehouses look like caves with doors to the outside, are used to keep cattle, winter provisions, and otherwise used as storage.
People in Abyaneh earn their living through agriculture, gardening, and husbandry- by traditional methods. Wheat, barley, potato, and various kinds of fruits such as apple, plum, pear, apricot, almond, and walnut are cultivated.
The village has seven branches of the ancient subterranean canals (Qanat) running through it, used for irrigation of fields and gardens.
Most women take part in economic activities on par with men.
In recent years, carpet weaving has become popular with the village folk, and there are currently 30 carpet workshops running in the village. However during previous decades, weaving Giveh (traditional footwear) was a lucrative business for women, but this is gradually perishing in the more recent times.
Tradition
Abyaneh’s inhabitants have lived in isolation for so long, due to the rugged terrain, its distance from any towns or main roads, that they have managed to keep their traditions and language largely intact.
Their language is Farsi, but spoken with a unique accent (called ‘Abiyanei’).
People are still proud to wear their traditional costumes which mainly consist of long black and baggy trousers for men and a long dress of colorful floral design for women, added by a white scarf.
The oldest legacy of the past in the village is the fire temple which stands among other structures on a slope. This monument is a good example of the Zoroastrian places of worship that were built in the mountains. The most prominent heritage monument in Abyaneh is, however the Jameh mosque, within it is a very old wooden podium, used by the imam ‘minbar’ (preaching chair) that dates back to 1073.
Another mosque of historical importance is the Barzale mosque, situated in a bright a spacious plain, dating back to the early 14th century, to the Ilkhanid period. There is also another mosque built near a rock in the mountains which was built in the 16th century.
Abyaneh has two sacred places visited by pilgrims: one is the location of the shrines of Shahzadeh Isa, and Shahzadeh Yahya who are said to be the sons of Imam Kazem – the seventh Imam of Shiites. The other tabernacle is called Ghadamgah.
The houses of Nader Shah’s servant and Nayeb Hossein Kashi are two other notable historical attractions of the village.
