Masuleh(ماسوله)
One of the impressive destination both for Iranians and foreigners is Masuleh village & Rud-khan castle as tour package in Iran.The first village of masuleh date backed around 1006 AD, 6 km northwest of the current village,the village is located in 1,050 meters above sea level in the Alborz mountain range and 60 Km away from Rasht (center of Gilan province) and the biggest adjacent town to the village is Fuman(30Km away).
Fog is the predominant weather feature of Masuleh so Yellow clay coats the exterior of most buildings in Masuleh and allows for better visibility in the fog. This village lost most of its population due to the following construction of new link road between the village to Azerbaijan, and also the famine in 1941. After registering the village as a cultural and natural heritage site since 1975, Department of Cultural Heritage prevent village to be expanded the civilazation borders so it would be another reason for decreasing the population, It has approximatly 1000 local inhabitants recently .
The most distingushing feature of the village is its unique architecture as one of the stair stepped villages in Iran,in a way that, The yard of the higher level building is the roof of the lower level building on steep slope of mountain .
Concept of sustainability has been regarded in recent years, and many western countries have tried to approach successful models of sustainable development. A glance on vernacular architecture in different areas of Iran suggests our ancestors’ prudence and wisdom in selection of material and form of building to save energy by constructing sustainable building. They have used minimum facilities to provide the most suitable existing conditions; to overcome unfavorable climatic and environmental conditions and to meet principles and fundamentals of sustainable design which is focused nowadays by architects and urban designers. its important factor in recent decades that such village like Masuleh tried to be exemplary of this matter as enviromental factor.
Environmental sustainability is the most important aspect of residential area, environmental sustainability includes some important aspects, for instance construction of efficient buildings based on environmental regulations and construction of buildings with minimized energy consumption; flexibility and long life. for example below picture shows level of rural building that is built compatible to the slope of the area with minimum change in rural nature.
Also cooling and heating procedure of the buildings of village based on sustainability &coordination of rural area. People of Masuleh use passive methods for thermal comfort ,due to village texture protection they dont connect to gas supply resources instead they use Gas cylinders for heating & amenity of houses.
Its been said that the advent of masuleh was based on great earthquake & pestilence epidemic around 900 AD, as result it cause displacement to this region.
Rud-khan castle(قلعه رودخان ) near masuleh
Rudkhan castle is stone medieval castle related to Sassanids era (224-651),then rebuilt in beginning of 11th century by the Ismaeilid (a sect of Shia)for military purpose as barracks(Assassins group) . Before Assassins it became a defensive barracks against the Arabs around 7th AD.The level of castle is around 700m above sea & it has 1000 stairs to the top approximately.For visiting both Rud’khan castle and Masuleh village 2day is required atleast, one and half day should be allocated to Masuleh and half day to visit Rud’khan fortress. You could book this Tour package by this contact form.
