From Kashan to Isfahan: Fin Garden & the red village of Abyaneh

12 Nov

During my third day in Iran, it was time to travel from Kashan to Isfahan, one of the most beautiful cities that I visited during my trip. For the journey, I booked a private transfer with Tap Persia that included a couple of stops on the way to visit some of the incredible places that Iran has to offer.

Before leaving Kashan, I first stopped at the Fin Garden, a highlight of the city and a UNESCO Heritage Site. I would then continue my journey with a stop in the red village of Abyaneh, famous for its very particular houses and for having one of the most unique cultures of Iran!

How to go from Kashan to Isfahan

The distance between Kashan and Isfahan is 205km, so the journey takes approximately 2h 20m. There are very frequent buses departing from Kashan bus station and arriving in the Kaveh terminal, so travelling between both cities couldn’t be any easier.

However, there are some interesting places on the way that are worth a visit, which can make the journey a bit more complicated if you want to stop on the way.

Since I didn’t want to travel straight to Isfahan, I hired a private Kashan to Isfahan tour with TAP Persia, which included a stop at the Fin Garden of Kashan and Abyaneh, a beautiful village located 87km south from Kashan.

TAP Persia is a tour operator whose purpose is to bring foreign guests in Iran and make them feel at home. They offer all type of services that include guided tours and hotel, bus and flight reservations. They accept payments outside of Iran through PayPal, so they’re a great option to book your transportation. I used them for all my bus tickets as well as my flight from Shiraz back to Tehran and they’re very reliable.

At the time of my visit, the price of the transfer was €45 for one person. Although this was more expensive than the bus, especially as a solo traveller, the visit was well worth it and made it extremely convenient to get to Esfahan and still visit all the places of interest found on the way.

Fin Garden

I had spent my previous day visiting all the highlights of Kashan, the city of historic houses. However, I didn’t have enough time to go to one of the most famous sites of the city: the Fin Garden.

The garden is located slightly far away from the city centre of Kashan, about 8km south, so I decided to visit this UNESCO Heritage Site early in the morning before starting my private transfer to Isfahan.

My visit to Iran took place just after Nowruz, the Persian New Year’s, so all sites were extremely busy with local visitors. When we arrived at the Fin Garden, the access was blocked to cars and had to park a few minutes walk from there.

My driver brought me to the door to buy the tickets, but he insisted that I looked Iranian so he would try to get me in paying the local price, which is 100 times lower than for foreign visitors. My Mediterranean look did help to pass by as a local, and although I felt a bit bad doing this, my guide insisted that it would be okay and that it wasn’t fair that the government wanted to rip off foreign visitors by charging them so much higher.

He purchased the ticket for me and managed to enter paying the local price of 2,000 rials (approx. €0.05). The regular price for foreigners is 200,000 rials (approx. €5)

Fin Garden was built in 1590, which makes it the oldest garden in Iran. They were commanded under the reign of Abbas I of Persia as a traditional bagh and developed later during the Safavid dynasty in the 17th century.

But it wasn’t until the Qajan Empire during the 19th century that the garden was expanded to its current form. It was highly neglected and damaged until it was listed as a national property of Iran in 1935. It was finally recognised as a Unesco Heritage Site in 2012.

The complex is surrounded by circular towers and has a total extension of 2.3 hectares. The gardens are filled with cypress trees and the architecture of the garden mixes architectural styles of the Safavid, Zandiyeh and Qajar periods of Iran.

One of the main features of the gardens are the beautiful fountains and streams of water, which come directly from a spring on a hill behind the garden, so all the water flows without any mechanical assistance.

Abyaneh

After about one hour visiting the gardens, I continued my journey to Isfahan. However, we would first stop at the red village of Abyaneh, located 1h10m south from Kashan.

This tiny village of only 305 inhabitants is famous for its beautiful red houses that appear to emerge from the mountains that surround them. All houses are built in multiple layers that sometimes reach up to 4 stories, constructed on a way that the flat roofs of the lower houses work as the yard of the houses located above. The red colour of the façade comes from the red soil from a mine located not far from the village.

To enter the village, visitors need to pay a fair entrance fee of 50,000 (approx. €1).

The village is very small, but the maze-looking streets can make it confusing to explore. I’d recommend getting one of the maps from the visitor centre, as it suggests a route that you can follow to ensure that you don’t miss a thing.

Some of the highlights that you can visit during this recommended route is a fire temple, three citadels, different pilgrimage sites as well as the unique Jamel Mosque. This mosque, built in the 11th century, is famous for the Seljuk architecture used in the wood minbar, mihrab and load-bearing system. The interior is built with bricks, but the ceiling is made by wooden supports.

Don’t forget to stop by the Hajatgah Mosque, built in the 11th century. Inside, you can find the tomb of Bayazid of Bastam, a Persian mystic.

Abyaneh is a village with a very particular culture, which dates back to the Sassanid era of Iran. Due to the remote location of the village, its inhabitants have kept some characteristics of the Middle Persian language spoken during that era back in the 7th century.

They have also preserved all their tradition and local ceremonies, including their very characteristic clothing. In Abyaneh, women cover their heads with a white floral kerchief and a hedge skirt on top of their trousers, all of them in very vivid colours. On the other hand, men wear black loose trousers, a qaba (a long garment on top of a shirt), a giveh (light cotton shoes) and a hat.

During your visit, you will probably see many locals wearing these traditional clothes. You won’t find this type of clothing anywhere else in Iran, so you can’t miss a visit to Abyaneh to discover this peculiar culture!

Young girl using the traditional clothing

I spent at least 2 to 3 hours exploring the village before continuing my journey to Isfahan. It takes approximately 2h 45m to reach the city from Abyaneh, so I got there early in the evening.

In addition to that evening, I would have two more days in Isfahan, the highlight of Iran. With its impressive Naghsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan was by far one of my favourite cities during my trip to Iran!