The Historical City of Masouleh

Masouleh is a town at 1,050m altitude in the Alborz mountains, in the north of Iran near the Caspian Sea. It dates from the 16th century, when the population of Old Masouleh was displaced due to an outbreak of the plague. Some 180 families still live in the ‘new’ village. Masouleh has been on Iran’s Tentative List since 2007, but the explanation provided why it should be considered a WHS is particularly concise: “The traditional and untouched architecture of some houses”.

I arrived at Masouleh on May 5th, a religious holiday in Iran. It quickly became clear that many Iranians had selected this mountain village as a destination to celebrate their day off. Long lines of cars were parked alongside the entrance road. Many had ditched their cars even earlier, and were picknicking on the bank of the road. I even noticed that a few women had removed their headscarves, a pinnacle of rebelliousness in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The village only shows itself when you are right in front of it: it consists of yellow or beige coloured houses stacked on top of each other against the steep mountainside. The space is so limited that the roofs of the buildings below serve as roads for the level above. So if you really want to see something here, you have to climb. I started my round from the left, first uphill and then onto the main street joining the thousands of daytrippers. It reminded me of Volendam, a Dutch …