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Southeastern Iran

While central Iran's gem cities are deservedly a far bigger draw, the southeast offers cave-houses, classic gardens, fortresses, deserted villages, oases and fabulous erosion patterns all set in scenery that intersperses great expanses of desert with chains of high mountains. Especially if you're mobile, this is a thrilling region in which to feel like a real-life explorer discovering timeless ancient sites...and enjoying them all on your own.

If planning a multiday loop, do it clockwise: Birjand and Kerman seem far more delightful if you've yet to see Yazd and Esfahan. And crossing the Dasht-e Lut westbound provides a scenic crescendo that reaches a glorious climax at the Kaluts.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Southeastern Iran.

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Bazar-e Sartasari
Kerman’s magnificent 'Sartasari' ('end-to-end') Bazaar is one of the oldest and most memorable trading centres in Iran. Its main thoroughfare stretches 1200m from Tohid Sq to Shohada Sq, the majority covered with classic vaulting and with several caravanserai courtyards off to the north. Within are several museums, bathhouses and religious structures, while the vivacity of the whole experience is enough in itself to keep visitors interested for at least an hour or two, especially in the morning and late afternoon.
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Aramgah-e Shah Ne’matollah Vali
The physical and spiritual heart of Mahan is filled by the impressive mausoleum complex of dervish-mystic and poet Shah Ne’matollah Vali, who died in 1431 (aged more than 100!). Built five years after his death by an Indian king who followed his teachings, the complex has received many additions, most notably the Abbasid blue cupola and Qajar-era twin minarets. The two charming, pond-filled courtyards have roosting birds in the trees who are all a-twitter at dusk.
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Deh Salm
With lush date-palm groves, domed mud-brick houses, carpet-saddled camels and a distant backdrop of arid mountain ridges, it's hard to imagine a more archetypal oasis village than tiny Deh Salm. (At least once you get past the tatty new houses at its entrance.) Best of all there's minimal tourism: just one family takes guests in their traditional house, though a desert camp is being built as a base for jeep safaris to the Rigi Yalan sand dunes, 35km to the south, for which Deh Salm is an access point.
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Kaluts
The Kaluts is a large area in which the rough, rocky desert has been sculpted by millennia of wind erosion into long lines of photogenic formations. Much the most impressive of these are five- to 10-storey high yardangs (‘sand castles’) with vertical or stepped sides. They are especially spectacular at dawn and sunset when light and shadows turn the scene into a shimmering canvas of gold and brown.
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Arg-e Rayen
One of Iran's most impressive fortress-citadels, the Arg's vast adobe walls top a gentle slope directly south of central Rayen. Inside is a castle within a castle. Some sections are very ruinous but wandering through the extensively restored governor's quarters it's easy to imagine the trepidation that supplicants must have once felt approaching the powerful local ruler through dark passages and hidden inner courtyards. Superb views from the battlements above the gatehouse reveal a backdrop of Mt Hezar (4420m).
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Meymand
A Unesco site, this troglodyte village is a series of over 400 cave-houses with a total of more than 2500 kiche rooms burrowed into the gently sloping sides of a Y-shaped valley around orchard gardens. For thousands of years this was the winter quarters of shepherds who moved to Abadi in spring and from late summer to Sara-aghol on the plains south of the village.
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Muzeh Sanati
The 'contemporary' section of this wide-ranging gallery is a selection of thought-provoking photographic and illustrative social commentary in the rear halls. There's also an intriguing modern section, including a grasping hand sculpture (credited somewhat questionably to August Rodin), two Béla Kádár watercolours and a small Kandinsky landscape. Some of the Iranian works are more compelling, notably Mohammad Javadipour's semi-cubist rural scene and Rajbali's classic Persian-style rendering of Shah Nematollah Vali.
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Gonbad-e Jabaliye
Where Shohada St approaches the arid crags that abruptly mark the city's eastern edge sits this hefty octagonal structure of mysterious provenance. Some scholars date it to the 2nd century AD and think it may have been an observatory; others say it was a tomb. Whatever its function, it's unusual hereabouts for being constructed mostly of stone – though the double-layered dome, added 150 years ago, is brick.
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Hammam Museum
This historic bathhouse is now a museum in which wax dummies illustrate the workings of a traditional hammam. Signage is a little garbled ('AD' dates actually refer to Persian Calendar years) but gives an idea of each chamber's purpose. Look for the time stones – translucent, 10cm-thick alabaster panels that glow mysteriously when struck by low sunlight filtering through the skylights, giving bathers a rough idea of the time (at least around sunrise or sunset).