Cultural Landscape of Hawraman/Uramanat

During the 44th meeting of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO, on June 25, 2021, the Cultural Landscape of Hawraman/Uramanat was inscribed on the World Heritage List. Hawraman or Uramanat is an extent historical-cultural landscape, located in Kermanshah and Kurdisatn provinces in Iran. The property is characterized by its tiered architecture and planning.  It includes parts of Sarvabad, Sanandaj and Kamyaran cities, in Kurdistan, and Ravansar, Paveh, Javanroud and Salas Babajani, in Kermanshah. Zhavehrud, Uraman Takht and Lahun Vallies are also located in this landscape. Two components define the Hawraman: The Central-Eastern Valley in Kurdistan province (including Zhaverud and Takht); and the Western Valley in Kermanshah Province (including Lahun).

The Cultural Landscape of Hawraman/Uramanat encompasses about 409 thousand hectares of area, of which 106 thousand hectares are related to the area and 303 thousand hectares are considered the right-of-way.  UNESCO has identified two main criteria for selecting this historic-natural site; One of these criteria is to provide exceptional testimony to the cultural tradition or civilization that lived or is still alive in the region and is now extinct. And the second criterion is an outstanding example of human habitation, the traditional use of land or sea to represent a culture or cultures, or to reflect human interaction with an environment that has become vulnerable to fundamental change. 

From this view, The Cultural Landscape of Hawraman/Uramanat is a symbol of the traditional culture of the Horami people, a Kurdish tribe that has lived in the area since about the third millennium BC.  The human habitation in these two valleys has adapted to the harsh mountain environment over the millennia.  Steep slope architecture and texture, gardening on dry stone slabs, livestock breeding, and seasonal vertical migration are the hallmarks of the native culture and life of the Horami nomadic peoples who live in the lowlands and highlands at different times of the year. The stepped architecture of Oramanat region is such that it has given a pyramidal shape to the whole area.  In this form of architecture, the roof of each house is the courtyard of the house that is placed on top of it.  The greater number of houses at the bottom and the location of the ancient castle at the top reinforce the pyramidal shape of the area. Due to its resemblance to Masouleh village in northern Iran, this stepped shape in Oraman region has caused it to be called Hezar Masouleh village. Their constant presence in this landscape, which is evidenced by biodiversity and endemism, with the discovery of stone tools, cave and rock shelters, trusses, remnants of permanent or temporary human habitation and workshops, cemeteries, roads, villages, castles and etc., has been revealed to modern man. The settlement of the people in the 12 villages located in this cultural landscape shows the various methods and progressive strategies that these people have thought of for millennia to solve the problem of fertile land scarcity in their mountainous climate.

 According to the Horaman deeds discovered in the area, the history of settlement in this area dates back to prehistoric times and signs of Assyrian, Median, Achaemenid and Greek rule in this area have been confirmed.  In particular, the existence of documentary inscriptions from the Assyrian period in this region is a proof of the antiquity of this cultural-historical perspective. The oldest traces of human habitation have been found in the discoveries of Hajij village, belonging to the Paleolithic period, which according to archeological reports began more than 40,000 years ago and lasted until 12,000 years ago.

It is interesting to know that the name of this region consists of two parts, Hora and Man, in which "Hura" or Ahura refers to the name of Ahura Mazda. The second part of this name, "Man" in Horami language means house.  The combination of these two words together gives the name of the cultural landscape of Oramanat, that means the house of Ahuramazda or the house of the sun.  Oramanat / Horamanat cultural landscape is the 26th world monument of Iran and the third Iranian cultural landscape registered on the UNESCO heritage list, after Bam cultural landscape and Meymand Kerman cultural landscape