Iran highlights

Abyaneh

     One of the most attractive to visit is in the village of ABYANEE, which was completely Zoroastrian right until the time of the intolerant Safavid Shah Ismail I in whose reign most of the villagers emigrated to India or to Yazd. Even today their costume, way of life and ancient dialect are still practically unchanged.
     Drive for about 42 km to Dehji, along the road to Natanz, south of Kashan; a few kin, further on, see a good gravel road to the west, before the Hinjan bridge, where a sign indicates Abyaneh and the magnificent Barzrud valley. Some 25 km along this road, passing Hinjan village, you reach Abyaneh at the bottom of a gorge dominated by a small Mongol fort. The main street goes right through the remains of the 'Atashkadeh' or temple, open on three sides and with a broken dome.
     About 300 m from the Atashkadeh, on the same lane, is an interesting mosque with a probably Safavid entrance and corridor, and next to it, below the present building, another mosque believed to be pre-Seljuq, with an exceptionally beautiful and unusual carved wooden Mihrab protected by a sheet of glass.