Kerman is the land of unusual wonders. It serves as a diverse display of the country’s attractions.
City of Ghosts
To the east of Kerman, in the middle of Lut Desert, there is a region called the ‘city of ghosts’ by travelers, but in fact it is the Shahdad Desert. Other than yardangs, which are the ridges sculpted by persistent winds, everything moves “every few hours”.
Yardangs are unique in the world and there are numerous secrets of the principles and properties of their genesis. Looking at them from afar it appears to be a big city with numerous skyscrapers. This is the reason why foreign tourists call it the city of ghosts. Getting lost is very easy here. One should not follow the “strange sounds and voices” coming from behind the dunes and yardangs.
Mound of Roasted Wheat
Some 35 km north of the yardangs, within a vast depression of Lut Desert, there is a mound 400 meters high, covered with black rocks. The mound is called Tal-Gandom-Beryan ‘Mound of Roasted Wheat’.
It is no joke that at a record 70° centigrade, the mound sometimes becomes the hottest place on Earth, as reported in the Persian daily Ettela’at.
Largest Opening
Some 7 km from Dehaj rural district in Shahrebabak county, there is a large cave in the volcanic rocks on the southern slope of Mount Ayyub ‘Job’; 50 meters wide and 40 meters high, the entrance to the Ayyub Cave is the largest open cavity among the country’s caves.
Highest Settlement
To the southwest of Kerman city, under the shade of Mount Laleh-Zar’s summit, people live all year long in the highest village of Iran. The village, called Ordikan, is located at an altitude of 3,000 meters above sea level.
Dome Made of Camel Milk
The dome of Jabalieh stands firm at the eastern edge of Kerman city. The monument has seen hundreds of winters, but its dome has remained unbelievably sound. The secret to the integrity of the ancient monument is said to be camel milk; in the mortar, for the construction of the dome, camel milk was used instead of water.
Giant Worm in Bam Citadel
Local legend has it that the Arg ‘citadel’ of Bam was the capital of Haftvad who was a 7th son having himself 7 sons and one daughter.
He resided in Kerman’s Qale-Dokhtar and built the present city of Kerman with the riches that he acquired because of an apple worm found by his daughter.
In the day she found the worm and picked it up, her spun yarns became three times greater than before; thus her mother deemed the worm lucky and helped the girl taking care of it.
As the worm grew in size, its residence changed from a box to a chest, and finally to a chamber in Citadel of Bam, where the creature became a dragon.
Above the citadel is a place still famous as “Kot-e Kerm”. ‘Kot’ in local parlance means pit or refuge; and ‘kerm’ is worm.
Ardeshir Babakan (Latinized Artaxerxes I), founder of the Sassanid Empire, put an end to the rule of Haftvad.
It is not known which part is history, and which is legend; they say, since Haftvad’s worm, now a dragon, helped him against Ardeshir, the Sassanid king disguised himself and infiltrated into Haftvad’s citadel and fed the worm with molten lead.
According to the legend, Citadel of Bam derives its name from the sound of the worm’s explosion.
Footprints of Dinosaurs
In the valley of Neyzar near Deh-Alireza village, 20 km north of Zarand city, once walked a giant creature.
Unlike the giant worm, mentioned before, there is a hard, objective proof for this claim: there are footprints of dinosaurs belonging to the Jurassic and Triassic periods of Mesozoic era, between 180 and 250 million years ago.
Some of the footprints belong to the suborder of carnivorous Theropoda, an ancestor of modern birds.
Stony Protest
In the southeastern province of Kerman, some 45 km southeast of Sirjan town, in the vicinity of Balvard village, there was once a green garden belonging to Darvish Khan Esfandyarpur.
Back in 1961 the former shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi introduced some land reforms to Darvish Khan’s great loss; they seized his lands and deprived his gardens of water.
He lost his life’s pride and joy; he lost everything and set out wandering in the wilderness. One day he returned to his dried garden and fastened a stone to a dried and dead tree.
He was speechless, and some regarded his act as a silent protest against the government’s policy. He continued tying stones to the dead trees, the trees he removed from their original place.
To tie the stones, he mainly used the wires inside the tires after burning them. Some stones of Sirjan Stone Garden are strangely large, leaving visitors wondering how the old man managed to lift and move them.
Though his lifetime effort withered and died, his later job turned into a popular tourist attraction decades later.
Darvish Khan passed away in 2007 at the age of 90 and was buried in the same stone garden he created.
