Abyaneh, located on the northwestern slope of Mount Karkas in Isfahan Province, is one of Iran’s oldest villages.
With its unique reddish structures, it is like a living architectural and anthropological museum.
Abyaneh attracts a great number of Iranian and foreign tourists throughout the year, especially for its traditional feasts and ceremonies.
The director of the Research Center of Abyaneh said on Wednesday that scientific studies on the brick houses indicate that only wood framing can help reinforce the structures against earthquakes.
“Wood framing offers certain elasticity which can stretch, control the tremors of the buildings, and prevent the structures from falling apart,” Azimeh Riyahi explained.
According to Riyahi, in the past, the villagers used to make use of this method to strengthen their houses by placing wood inside the walls.
Studies are currently underway to determine where to install the wood frames in the walls, she said, adding that experts hope to find ways to reinforce the buildings of old villages against earthquakes with new architectural designs.
Abyaneh is a beautiful hamlet 70 kilometers southeast of Kashan. It is a village of living traditions, unique architectural styles, and probably the most interesting example of human adaptation to nature.
The village is compact, with narrow and sloped lanes and houses located on the slope as if placed on a stairway. The roofs of some houses are the courtyards of other houses higher up on the slope.
There are many buildings inspired by Islamic and Zoroastrian architectural designs in the village.
RM/ML/HG
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MNA
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