The historical village of Maymand in southern Iran has been awarded the UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes for its 2005 edition. The prize ceremony was held at UNESCO headquarters on 7th September, 2005.
Maymand village is situated at an altitude of more than 2200 metres in the province of Kerman, close to the city of Babak-Shahr. The climate is mountain temperate with exceedingly hot summers and hard winters. Rainfall is variable, fluctuating between 300 and 500 mm per annum, which means the village has to be kept supplied by two underground aqueducts, called qanats. Maymand is built on a mountain in an arid zone where water resources have had to be channeled using unique forms of hydraulic construction.
The vegetation is sparse, the horizon only being interrupted here and there by scattered trees. Pistachios and wild almonds grow on grassland covered mainly by plants of the Astragalus family. The vegetation on the whole is adjusted to the dry conditions. Some of the vegetation was planted, particularly plants of a sacred nature. The ravines are dotted with tiny oases where hazel trees, vineyards, jujubes, almonds and other trees are grown. The oases are surrounded by tilled fields, some of which have suffered from successive periods of drought. Sheep-raising is a major activity.
To sum up, the Maymand landscape belongs to the agro-pastoral type of cultural landscapes. The inhabitants are semi-nomadic shepherds, some of whom own village land that is occupied in winter, whereas in summer the population moves to higher pastures. However, the kinds of dwelling-place dug out of the mountains are not of temporary nature, but are permanent homes, which have been inhabited for the last 2000 or 3000 years. The pastoral type architecture - shepherd huts known as kapar or gambeh, and barns or sheepfolds - can be seen here and there throughout the landscape and is part of the built heritage.
After having been awarded the Melina Mercouri International Prize, the landscape was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2015 as Cultural Landscape of Maymand.
