Hidden deep in the desert, the province of Kerman contains some of the hidden gems of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Famous for being the two biggest adobe constructions in the world, I started my visit exploring the Kerman province with the castles of Arg-e-Bam and Arg-e-Rayen, two of the most impressive fortress left by the Achaemenid Empire.

I would finish my day trip with a quick visit to Mahan to enjoy its Shazdeh Garden, declared a UNESCO Heritage Site, as well as the surprising Shah Nematollah Vali Shrine!

How to visit Bam, Rayen and Mahan from Kerman

Due to the isolated location of all three cities, you will most likely need a tour to visit these locations in a single day. If you’re sleeping in Kerman, you can get this tour easily organised by the Akhavan Hotel, where I also recommend staying.

I arrived in Kerman from Yazd after a long bus ride, and after struggling to get a taxi, I went straight to the Akhavan Hotel to check-in. I had contacted them in advance before my visit, and I had arranged a two-night stay at the hotel plus a visit to the Lut Desert, Bam, Rayen and Mahan, sleeping my second night in the desert.

My original plan was to sleep in Kerman the first night after arriving from Yazd, then visit Mahan and the Lut Desert the next day, sleeping in the desert that night. However, when I arrived in Kerman both the receptionist and my driver recommended going to the desert early the second morning, as visiting in the afternoon could be too hot to handle. The Lut Desert is famous for being one of the hottest places on earth, where temperatures can easily reach 50 degrees Celsius!

We ended up modifying my plans last minute and followed the itinerary below:

1st night: arrive in Kerman from Yazd and sleep at the Akhavan Hotel.
2nd day: tour of Bam, Rayen and Mahan. Overnight in the desert.
3rd day: sunrise in the Lut Desert to see the Kaluts, drive back to Kerman. Free time in Kerman with overnight at the Akhavan Hotel.

The total price was €194, including the private driver, two nights at the hotel with breakfast and dinner, and a night in the desert with dinner. It was more expensive than most other visits and stays in Iran, but it actually came out at around €60 per day, which wasn’t that crazy.

However, before my trip to Iran, I had been in touch with other travellers via a Facebook group. One of the girls that I met in the group was travelling solo at the same time that I was, so we ended up getting in touch and she decided to join me in Kerman and split the cost of the tour and the last two nights. This brought the price to only €100 per person, which wasn’t bad at all! If you’re travelling as a couple or in a bigger group, you can probably get a pretty good deal as well.

Her name was Laura, she was from Argentina and had arrived in Iran almost at the same time that I did, but her itinerary was quite different. It only matched in Kerman, which was perfect for me to get some company after more than a week travelling on my own, and also save some money!

The Akhavan Hotel is a bit of luxury in the middle of the desert. With the grandeur of its faux Corinthian columns, it is by far one of the most popular places to stay in Kerman. Managed by the Akhavan brothers, the hotel has great facilities which really make it up to the standard of most western hotels. My stay included breakfast and dinner, which were quite copious.

The personnel, including the brothers and the staff at the restaurant, were absolutely fantastic! They were really helpful and welcoming, they even let my new friend join me last minute on the tours! Unmarried couples in Iran cannot sleep together, even if they’re only friends, so considering we hadn’t even met before (of course I didn’t mention that part), I was worried that they wouldn’t allow her to join, but they didn’t have any issues with it. This rule seems to apply mainly to Iranian couples, but the law seems to be quite lax with international visitors.

The three days that I spent in Kerman were the most expensive part of my visit to Iran, but I don’t regret a single moment of it. Many visitors tend to skip Kerman altogether as it is quite far from most other cities, or if they do make it to Kerman, they don’t visit both Bam and Rayen as they’re pretty similar. In my opinion, that’s a huge mistake! Kerman is one of the most genuine places that you can visit in Iran, and the uniqueness of the Lut Desert and the impressive Bam and Mayan castles make the trip very worth it!

Bam

We started our drive early in the morning heading first to Bam, as it was the furthest city from the Lut Desert where we would spend the night. Bam is located 2h30 south-east from Kerman, only 4h away from the Afghan and Pakistani border.

The main attraction of Bam is its citadel, known as Arg-e Bam. Famous for being the biggest adobe building in the entire world, its origins date back to the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC.

On December 26th, 2003, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 destroyed 70% of this ancient construction, killing over 26,000 locals. In spite of the restoration works carried out in the last years, which are far from finished, much of the construction is still severely damaged.

The monument is still listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its RELEVANT ancient and recent history. The entrance fee for foreign visitors is 150,000 rials (approx. €3).

The exact date when Bam was constructed is unknown, but there are records of a fort in this same location back in the Achaemenian Empire in 579 BC. The construction was expanded during the Parthian Empire in the 3rd century BC and became known as Arg-e-Bam, the Citadel of Bam.

The Arabs conquered the Kerman region in 645, and the first mentions of Bam in their writings appear in the 10th century, describing Bam as an important commercial centre, with busy bazaars and an indestructible fortress.

When the Mongols invaded Iran in the 13th century, Bam was given to the Qarakhanid Dynasty. It was during these times that Bam became a key location on the Silk Road, with a flourishing spice and silk industry. In the following centuries, Arg-e-Bam was mainly used as a strategic site to defend against the invading enemies. As the military presence increased, people started settling outside the walls until in 1900, the construction of the new city of Bam started and people abandoned the old city.

The citadel was used as a garrison for a few years until it was fully abandoned in 1932. Twenty years later, Bam was recognised as a historical site, starting a conservation and restoration process that lasts until our days.

Bam consists of four different sections: a residential zone and the stables in the lower part, and the barracks and governor’s residence on the upper part of the citadel.

As you access Bam, the lower part of the city consisted of over 4,000 houses with two to four rooms. The most luxurious houses included big courts and stables for animals, with rooms oriented in different directions to make them suitable for the different seasons of the year.

The area that connects the main entrance and the citadel was the bazaar of Bam, once an important commercial hub of the Silk Road.

The fortress is surrounded by a moat with four entrance gates, and the defence walls were once protected by 38 watchtowers.

Located inside the most internal walls and upon a hill, the upper part of Bam is formed by its citadel. It contained a stable for over 200 horses, a water-well, a mill and the ruler’s residence.

You can actually go pretty high, as most of the reconstruction has focused on the walls and upper part of the city. The very top is not open to visitors, but you can still obtain pretty amazing views of the entire city.

In spite of the evident destruction caused by the 2003 earthquake, the reconstruction works have made a pretty good job in bringing back the glory of this city. The lower part is still very damaged, and not much is left of the houses where locals live until not that long ago.

The upper part is preserved much better, and it is truly impressive to see those gigantic fortifications made of mud in the middle of the dessert. Definitely worth the long drive!

Rayen

After a quick lunch at a restaurant in Bam, as we didn’t find any food for take away, we started driving back to our second destination, Rayen Castle. The distance is approximately 1h 30m.

The main attraction in Rayen is its castle, known as Arg-e Rayen, the second biggest adobe construction after Bam. Rayen is indeed very similar to Bam, but as it wasn’t affected by the 2003 earthquake, currently the state of preservation is considerably better.

The castle was already mentioned in the first century AH, but recent excavations suggest that it dates to the Sassanid era, so it is believed that the current construction was built over the ruins of an older castle. The entrance fee is 100,000 rial (approx. €2).

Rayen was located in a very important trade route that connected East and West, and was famous for its textiles. It was also a big producer of metal, including swords, guns or knives.

The castle was divided into three sections based on social class: there were 2 or 3 story residential buildings, also used for the workshops, followed by a section for the upper class separated by towers and walls. Finally, the area for the king and his family, where the most impressive constructions can be found.

Rayen had a population of around 5000 people until approximately 150 years ago, when the city was abandoned.

One of the most impressive parts of Rayen is the watchtowers, preserved almost intact. Other buildings that can e found, although in a much worse state of preservation, are a mosque, the barracks and even a school. The castle used to have a fire template, but it was abandoned when Islam became the main religion of the Kerman province.

Although it’s true that Rayen and Bam are very similar constructions, each of them have something unique that makes them worth the visit. It’s true that Rayen is better preserved, but I would still not replace it for the grandeur of Bam. I’m glad that I didn’t listen to all the advice online suggesting to skip Bam and only visit Rayen, as it is closer to the Lut Desert!

From the mausoleum, you can easily reach by foot the city walls of Yazd, or what remains of them. Yazd is already mentioned as a walled city in the writings of Marco Polo after he visited the city.

The walls of Yazd were used for centuries as shelter by the Persian dynasties. They consist of circular barbican towers with double layer walls, however, their design to defend against medieval artefacts such as archers or catapults, they couldn’t handle the firearms of the 19th and 20th centuries, bringing them to a very poor conservation state.

Mahan

The final stop of my tour was Mahan, which to my disappointment was a bit of a disaster. As soon as we arrived to Mahan, we realised that it was the very last day of the Nowruz celebrations (the Persian new year), and absolutely every single Iranian was outside celebrating. This not only caused Mahan to be extremely crowded, but there were also thousands of cars trying to return home before the working week started next day.

Our first stop in Mahan was the Shazdeh Garden. The queue of cars to go to the main entrance was so big, that we could easily spend hours before we got there, so I decided to get off the car and walk there while my guide would try to find a parking spot.

When I reached the door, I soon realised that it wouldn’t be possible to get in. There were hundreds of people outside, and unfortunately I didn’t enough time to wait or the patience to visit the garden with dozens of people pushing.

Shazdeh Garden was built in 1850 by Mohammad Hassan Khan Sardari Iravani, a prominent political figure of the time, however, the construction that we see today was was considerably remodelled only 20 years later. With a size of 5.5 hectares, this rectangular garden has the main entrance gate at the lower part, while the residential structures are locate don the upper part, both connected with beautiful water fountains. It was declared a UNESCO world Heritage Site in 2011.

Traffic was getting ugly, so we decided to give up on the garden and start our drive to the Lut Dessert. That’s when we started getting even worse news; the road to the desert was so crowded that it would be closed for a couple of hours.

To make the wait shorter, our driver brought us to the Shah Nematollah Vali Shrine. This historical site contains the mausoleum of Shah Nematollah Vali, a famous Iranian poet. The shrine was built in 1436, only 5 years after his death, becoming an important pilgrimage site.

The complex is formed of four courtyards with a reflecting pool, as well as the mosque with its two minarets and dome covered in turquoise tiles. The shrine was actually quite nice, so I was glad that we decided to go there! After a quick visit around, we sat at a local teashop to wait around until they opened the road to the desert at 8pm.

After having some tea and getting some rest, we headed back to the road hoping that it would be open, but as most things in Iran, things are never on time. We had to wait for another hour until 9pm before we could proceed to the desert.

After all this unexpected wait, we finally made it to our hotel in the desert almost 4 hours later. Our hosts made some dinner for us and we went straight to bed, as we would be waking up pretty early next day.

The hotel was extremely basic; rooms were a pretty big tent with no beds, only some blankets and a pillow to sleep on the floor, which were just comfortable enough to spend the night. However, bathrooms and showers were shared, and I’d say in a pretty horrific state.

I can easily survive with pretty low standards, but the experience wasn’t the great night at the desert that I was expecting, not even close to the amazing experiences that I had in Petra or even the Sahara Desert.

Next morning, we would wake up at 5am to see the sunset in the Lut Desert, the hottest place on earth. It is so hot that we would have to finish our visit by early morning, or the heat would be unbearable!

After enjoying the views of the desert, I still had some time to explore Kerman, an unknown but surprising city where tourists are a rare sight!

All opinions are my own.