Maymand

I'm surprised by the ratings and the statements of the community concerning this WHS. I understand the bad experience of Alexander, it could happen elsewhere. I agree with Zoe, troglodyte houses are not so uncommon.

The steep-sided village of Meymand, above all when the sunset is coming, is a very pleasant place. I passed a nice night in a troglodyte room without any problem (maybe i'm lucky?), and frankly speaking it was a good experience and a good souvenir.

I wonder now if I am not too easy to please, yet I have had other experiences less memorable...

I unfortunately have to rate this a bit low even though it is kind of interesting. I don't think living in cave houses is that special though, I saw it in Shaanxi the first time albeit a bit different style, but there goes my “oh wow these guys are old school rock house people, that's hardcore!” that should have been evoked on arrival. Dwayne Johnson doesn't even live here, what a bummer!

I wasn't the only tourist but I got the usual taroof and he waved me through as I got all over Iran. The Iranians driving right inside were charged promptly. I gave the nice old man the 30,000 riyal on my way out anyway, sitting out there in the cold all winter plus it goes to some benefit of village upkeep rather than his smoking habit, right?!

You see most buildings right near the start, the school, the old bath, the houses of course, then when you get to the center of the village you find the fire temple. Venturing further is not necessary but also not very far. Many houses were closed as in winter the inhabitants migrate to a warmer place. This also meant the fire temple was closed unfortunately.

As I said before, the idea of having your house carved out of a cave doesn't do it for me, especially when you see the power lines all over the place. The inhabitants clearly have a “real” house inside with basic kitchen and …

Our visit to Maymand was certainly less traumatic than that of the previous reviewer! It was interesting and pleasant enough but, on reflection, we didn’t perhaps really get to see enough of what gives the site its OUV. OK – we saw the troglodyte dwellings but the “Cultural Landscape” inscription covered rather more than these.

We reached the village after a 2.5hr drive from Kerman. N.b It seems best approached from the south via Shah-e Babak even though maps might suggest reaching it from the North by turning off highway 84 at Ahmadabad. A small group of foreign tourists was already there - the Kerman to Yazd journey is a major stage on the “Central Iran” tour circuit and, in all honesty, there isn’t a great deal else to see along it so, I suspect that Maymand is quite well positioned to benefit as a stop over, not too far off the direct route. As noted by the previous reviewer, the village already seems to have been well set up to receive tourists, with bilingual signs and explanatory notices outside the main points of interest, plus a number of UNESCO signs and also a plaque for the “International Melina Mercouri Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes” – awarded as long ago as 2005 by “UNESCO - Greece” and 10 years before the village gained inscription. See - http://whc.unesco.org/en/activities/511. Apparently it brought with it a prize of US $20k which presumably provided some “seed corn” to develop …

My visit to Maymand was a bizarre experience that is unlikely to be replicated by others, so my review should not be taken to be especially representative of the typical experience. I arrived via chartered taxi around 5:30pm, because the driver assured me it would only be 1.5 hours drive from Kerman and thus refused to leave earlier. This was very obviously wrong, and it took closer to 3.5. This wasn’t catastrophic, given sunset wasn’t until after 7:30, so there was still plenty of time to look around.

The entrance to the village is rife with triumphant UNESCO decoration and English-language touristy signage, as it has evidently become a part of the tour group circuit during the day. When I arrived, however, all the doors to all the cave-houses were closed, and the village was essentially deserted apart from a confused-seeming old man who very insistently tried to give me a bundle of blank CDs. This set the tone of my experience.

Eventually an old woman was found, though she seemed annoyed by my presence. I thought accommodation had been organised in advance by my hotel in Kerman, but this did not seem to hold much sway. A room was procured, notably not anywhere near the heavily signed Guesthouse on the other side of the small river. The ‘bed’ was a slab of plywood.

Wandering through the village itself around sunset was rather pretty, and it was nice to see some friendly dogs around for once (Iran seems to almost …