Uraman

Uraman, or Hawraman, is a mountainous region on the western edge of Iran, in Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces near the border with Iraq. Its people, the Hawrami Kurds, speak their own language, Hawrami, and have farmed these steep valleys for thousands of years. In 2021 UNESCO inscribed the Cultural Landscape of Hawraman/Uramanat as a World Heritage site.

The villages are built in steps up the mountainsides. Houses of dry stone and timber rise in terraces so tightly packed that the flat roof of one house becomes the yard or street of the house above, a pattern also found at Masuleh but here on a far larger scale. Around the villages, narrow terraces held by stone walls carry walnut, mulberry and pomegranate trees, watered by channels that lead streams along the slopes.

The best-known village is Uraman Takht, a cascade of houses on a slope above a river. It hosts the festival of Pir Shalyar, a local saint, held in mid-winter, with communal meals, music on the daf, the large frame drum, and circle dances that draw visitors from across the region. Out of festival time, a walk through the village is an education in how a hard landscape can be made to feed people.