Katale Khor Cave

Katale Khor is a cave in the limestone hills of Khodabandeh County, in the south of Zanjan province, near the village of Garmab. Its name is usually explained as “the hill of the sun”. It is one of the best-known show caves in Iran, a long system of passages and chambers formed over a very long time as water dissolved the rock.

Inside, the cave opens into a sequence of halls and galleries on more than one level, linked by narrow passages. Water dripping from the ceiling has built up stalactites and stalagmites, columns where the two have met, and curtains of stone that hang in folds from the walls. Some of the formations are pure white; others are stained red, yellow and brown by iron and other minerals carried in the water. Pools collect in the floor of some chambers, and the air is cool and still whatever the season outside.

Only part of the cave is open to visitors, along a lit path with walkways and steps. Cavers have explored much further, and surveys suggest the system runs for several kilometres, with sections still not fully mapped. The cave is a protected natural monument, and the authorities ask visitors not to touch the formations, which grow at the rate of a fraction of a millimetre a year and can be damaged by a single hand.

Above ground the cave lies in quiet farming country, not far from the great dome of Soltaniyeh to the north, and a visit to both makes a natural pairing: one of the masterpieces of human building in Iran, and one of nature's slow works beneath the hills.