The Largest Volcanic Crater in Iran (Kerman Province)
11 meter battlement, nearly 5 meters wide and repeated this so many times to make the metal turn white Hello friends, hope you are all doing well Yesterday we came to Kerman province, Iran Rayen city, right now, we're in the inn in a village, near Rayen Zohrud Village We are going to visit the landmarks of this area It's been almost three years since I came to Kerman province We will make a few episodes about this beautiful province and see the landmarks and its history together Good morning to all, from this pretty place We're on the hillsides of Hazar Mount Rayen city is located 100 km southeast of Kerman's capital city Rayen is situated on the hillsides of Hazar mountain, the highest mount in south Iran, so Rayen has a more moderate weather, compared to other areas in the province The city is located on one of the north-south/east-west intersections of Iran and in the old days, it was known as a political, business, and military hubs of southeast Iran OK, the first place we are going to visit is the Rayen Castle (Arg-e Rayen) The old city was all just inside this castle and later that this area became more secure, the city grew out of the castle and the new city was formed Based on its geographical situation, the route from India that came all the way to central Iran, or from south to the center, many people used to cross here, therefore in many historical travelogue, geographers mentioned this city Like many other castles, the foundation of this one dates back to the Sassanid period (224–651) but it was still in use up to the Qajar period (1789-1925) meaning it was repaired, and expanded up to the Qajar period (1789-1925) Security and defense systems and the method of dealing with foreign invasions, have had a great impact on the way settlements spread and their physical exterior In most vast fields and desert villages in Iran the architecture of defense systems can be described in two categories The first kind are the settlements that were formed between towers and battlements made out of adobe and access to the city/village, was through the gate The second type are villages that have a castle, and when people were in danger, and the threat of enemies was looming people would escape to the castle and remain inside for a while As I said, the Rayen Castle is the first type a city with towers and battlements and the city was always a target for enemies and looters Rayen is connected to Hazar mountain on the west, and on the east, it's connected to Lut Desert Lut Desert has always been the place for desert tribes and looters These looters were called 'Kufejan' These tribes used to live around central deserts of Iran and had settlements or even cities as their base From the 9th to the 11th century, the states near Lut Desert, were the place for fights and battles between local and non-local rulers to gain power and reign The Saffarid dynasty on the east, the Daylamites on the west, and Ale Elyas, and Ale Saman on the north, held the power The floor plan of the castle is nearly a rectangle It has 16 circular towers, 11 meter battlement, nearly 5 meters wide Residential sector, stable, barracks, the throne room, bazaar (marketplace), mosque, fire temple, are some of the components, that form this castle Rayen Castle Bazaar Here you can see, this was a 2-storey building That is the top floor, now in ruins, you can see the taqches ("niches") It even had a fireplace up there Look how thick the walls were More than 0.5 meters wide So in the winters, the cold would be less absorbed and keep the heat inside and in summers, it would keep the heat out to have better air condition inside the rooms In the traditional/old sectors of Iranian cities and villages, we find these narrow alleyways Here, that I am standing, this alley is like 2 meters wide They had 3 reasons to build the alleys this narrow, back then One: If enemies invaded and entered the city, these alleyways can slow them down and a large number of them could not get through Two: In warm seasons, in hot climates, these narrow passages provide shade and people could easily commute and three, are these vaults and sabats which they could build on the top which makes the walls and houses on the sides, stronger And social interactions were better, when the alleys were narrow and people were more connected to each other Here, is the governing castle or the throne / house of the ruler Here is the entrance, as you can see The hole in the battlements are called crenel / embrasure When enemies attacked, if they attacked, archers on the top could shoot arrows using these arrowslits or in the gunpowder-era, gunners could shoot through them But for the enemy, it was hard to shoot anything and hit the guards since the holes are narrow and far away In the ruling chamber, there's a corridor leading to a vestibule which has 4 corridors on 4 sides, leading to 4 courtyards, one was related to the house of the ruler, one was a place of rest for the ruler, another one was the guest house, and the other one, it's not written here but it's a beautiful place, it's worth visiting it If you're traveling to Bam, Kerman, or coming from south, from Sistan, for example, make sure to visit this castle The Rayen Castle is nearly 22,000 square meters it's recognized as the 2nd adobe building in Iran and worldwide after the Arg-e Bam ("Bam Citadel") Some people say that Izadkhast Castle is the 2nd adobe structure due to its multiple levels and they say that Izadkhast has more substructure but what I see here, this place has 2-storey, 3-storey buildings and the substructure here is nearly 50,000 square meters Well, I digress The important thing is this structure that is still here and it's really a beautiful place All the towers in the Rayen Castle have two floors and there are staircases on two sides of the towers One goes to the top of the tower, the other goes to other towers Most used material in the castle was adobe and mud walls which are the local and traditional building materials in desert regions 6 to 7 km southeast of Rayen, there's a castle/citadel, people still live inside it It's very beautiful, I saw some aerial footage of it I decided to come and visit this place as well and see how it is Let's see if we can find someone that can tell us more about this place if not, I will only capture some footage of the place The Deh Mirza castle was built nearly 150 years ago in the Qajar period This arg or castle has one main gate and one main street This castle is divided into 4 sections, each have a different entrance The main occupation of locals in Deh Mirza village, is agriculture and pastoralism Here, you can see the pistachio orchards surrounding the citadel Day Two This morning, we went to capture a timelapse video, showing the Rayen Castle and now we're near the Rayen Waterfall It's around 15 km away from the city It's really cold here As you can see this part is completely frozen Let's go change our shoes, we can't continue with these normal shoes Look at the equipment Sara has It's cold! The wind is freezing Many people think that Kerman is just a big desert but don't make that mistake If you come to this province you might encounter something like this Hazar mount, the highest mount in south Iran, with an elevation of 4,501 metres, it's one of the most snowy mounts in Kerman province and south Iran The reason the mount is called Hazar, which means "thousand", is because you can find 1000 types of medicinal plant in this massif According to locals, in Ordibehesht (mid-spring), the aroma and smell of medicinal plants can cause some people to faint Another point of interest here, is the highest residential place on the hillside Bab Zangi village, with an altitude of 3309 meters above sea level, is recognized as the highest village in Iran Well, we are leaving Zahrud I don't know why I called it Zohrud in the beginning It was my fault! It was written in a way that she thought it was pronounced Zohrud She said Zohrud many times and I also called it Zohrud, but Zahrud is correct We're leaving now, let me go check out this knife making place and see if we can find someone to tell us more about the place and record some footage, possibly Mr. Sharifi, Knifemaker: Knife making is an ancient profession My father and ancestors were knife makers And I continued their work I make all types of knives, artisanal, crafts, all that is made in Rayen And I hope our children continue this tradition To make the handle, we use horns, all sorts of animal horns We cut it as desired After cutting it, we remove the marrow and discard it Then we heat the horn When we heat it up it becomes soft, like plastic, when it becomes soft, we can shape it After heating it, we can shape it using pliers Change it into a desired shape It looks like this now And this step is done Now we file it to make it smooth Let's attach this Now we can add the nail like this Now, the blade has to go inside the furnace to make it hard, polish it Mr. Sharifi, in the old days, there was no electricity Many tools you use right now, needs electricity Yes, correct Can you tell us more about the furnace, cutters, and stuff, they had back then? Yes, to heat the metals they used furnaces but there was no electricity to heat it up In the old days, they had a type of waterskin made using lamb skin It had two iron parts, held like this open them up, there was hole at the end, to breathe air into the furnace and make the coal hot and heat the metals They had a type of wooden clamps put the metal inside it and some stone tools, made from stones and scratched the stones on top of the metal and repeated this so many times to make the metal turn white Mixed with some type of oil, make the metal white They used this method to make it white To add finish and patterns and shapes, they used hand files From this angle, you can see the historical and traditional sector of Rayen What a view There's a place called volcanic crater We didn't get to see it that time that we were in Rayen After visiting Bam and Jiroft, we came back to Rayen but now we're on the Jiroft journey, we have to return to Jiroft after this to capture some more footage there Anyway, we're here now Now let's go to the volcanic crater together Some beautiful volcanic craters, they are not active though Really beautiful Let's go see them It was nearly a 2 hour drive from Jiroft to Rayen Sara is with me We're going to a beautiful place that I'm very excited about To get to the volcanic craters, we go to the Qal'eh Hasan Ali village 30 km south of Rayen The village, due to the recent droughts, now only houses 1-2 families We're near the first crater It's a small one It was a steep slope to climb, here is much better with all this equipment, it's kinda difficult Weather forecasting tricked us into wearing warm clothes but it's warm here The approximate time to hike to the volcanic crater: 45 minutes We walked up real fast Wow! Oh my God it's so big! It's so beautiful There are ten volcanic mountains in Iran The biggest volcanic crater is this one right here The diameter of the crater is nearly 1200 meters and it's nearly 300 meters deep Other than these two craters, there are 12 more volcanic craters in this mountain in Qal'eh Heydar and Tutak villages In the volcanic mountains in Iran Damavand, Taftan, and Bazman are dormant stratovolcanos of Iran The water source for the crater are the underground springs and to some degree, rainfall According to the locals, the salt of this lake, is one of the highest quality edible salts Due to the recent droughts, one of the way that people of Qal'eh Hasan Ali make money is by selling the salt of volcanic crater The wind is just crazy here If the drone was up there, we had to go to Bam to retrieve it Mr. Afzali went down to bring us some salt
Mr. Afzali is coming back up It's really cold here On our way up here, it was kinda warm Mr. Afzali, thank you You're welcome - We really enjoyed being here - Good job dear Ali Best wishes man, thanks A few dogs are here People come here to take salt from the volcanic crater The family that lives here, and they sell it to make some money If I can transfer money to them here, I'll buy some It's a very high quality salt, Mr. Afzali says it's unique and amazing It's like snow Good This is the salt All salt Sara said many times: Take me somewhere that snows Let's go to the north or Kurdistan or Gilan Finally... So you're saying this is enough? I find you snow in Kerman! Thank God, really Don't assume, I repeat... Why is my voice... hoarse
Don't assume Kerman is just desert It also has areas like this, which are cold that snows like this It just started to snow, I might add We stopped here to have some tea OK, let's end this video right here I hope you enjoyed watching the video and stay tuned for the next ones, we're going to Bam and Jiroft Thank you all Sara, wanna say something? Wish all you could be here in this beautiful snowy weather Yes, wish you could be here I put a link to the video about Kalmakareh cave Make sure to watch that video, until the Bam video is released Don't miss that one Farewell
2025-04-01 19:00
