On my drive back to Tehran from Esfahan, I did one last stop at this small village of Abyaneh. Built at an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet (2,000 meters), Abyaneh is situated in a green oasis surrounded by mountains. The architecture here reminded me of houses built in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and like New Mexico the mountains here top off around 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). On the left are some traditional homes and a view of the entire town on the right. This place was extremely touristy among Iranians by the way! It seems many of them make the drive from other big cities like Esfahan or stop by during cross country drives. The locals here used to wear pirate like shirts and large baggy black pants. I only saw one man dressed like this but he escaped before I could photograph him. Apparently tourism from Tehran has influenced the locals to dress more modern.

The surrounding photos show more architecture from Abyaneh. I noticed that it seemed common in this town to sell pomegranate fruits that were rolled out, basically like a fruit roll-up sold in the US. I had tried these in the country Georgia and since I enjoyed them I decided to buy one here. I’m not sure if I bought a bad batch or what, but the one I tried was the saltiest thing I’ve ever had in my life! It was more of a pomegranate flavored salt than the other way around. Fortunately I found someone who was happy to take it from me.