KARAFTOO CAVE

The Cradle Of Architecture

Karaftoo, which I'd like to call the cradle of architecture is located on the north west of Divandarreh town in Kurdistan province. A 76 kilometer beautiful road in Zagross Mountains takes you to the cave area which is now under supervision and protection of Iran cultural heritage and tourism organization.
Karaftoo is a calcareous cave with a 750 meter long main path and many sub paths derived from it. Visiting the cave without a guide might be confusing thus its a touristy cave.
Although Karaftoo has been opened to the tourists lately but there are still many parts of the cave to be explored by the cavers.
The cave entrance is located on a very beautiful wall, 25 meters above the ground and was so hard to reach before the stairs were made for it.
Karaftoo itself is a very nice cave that could attract tourists for sure but the reason that brings tourists to this cave from all over the world is not only the natural beauty of the cave but the thousands years of human residence in it! Three periods of human residence have been defined in Karaftoo. Prehistorical, Historical and the Islamic period.
There are four floors in the architecture of the cave and different remains from the periods. For me the ones from the stone age were the most amazing. Although the stone houses made in the Islamic period(600-800 years ago)are also very beautiful. Imagine a house with a nice view of a vast valley in the window of the living room and a cave just behind the children's room door!
There are many interesting things about the cave like the usage of biogas or the great way of collecting and using the water.
We were not lucky enough to take as many pictures as we wanted inside the cave but the memory of visiting Karaftoo will always remain in our minds.
These are the very few photos we took from Karaftoo:

Images

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