Qayen is famous as the Saffron capital of Iran. A small city where many people are occupied with saffron and barberry cultivation and they offer high quality products to the market.
Gayen is located in South Khorasan Province in the east of Iran. Its distance to Birjand, the center of South Khorasan, is approximately 100 km. it contains 3 districts and 8 rural districts and includes a population more than 111342. It is placed 1440 above sea level has some mountains around. The eastern areas of Qayen are a part of Iran border line with Afghanistan.
Most of people here are followers of Shia’ Islam and speak in Farsi. Their dialect, however, is somewhat different in each region.
The cement factory of Qayen is one of the main industrial centers in this city which was exploited in 1373 SH. Another industrial center of the city is the Nimbolouk dairy products’ factory.
Qayen embraces many different historic attractions among which the most important is Central Mosque. Famous travelers have visited this place along history and referred to it in their travelogues among them Naser Khosrow must be mentioned. Tomb of Bouzarjomehr Qayeni, Kuh Castle and several historic houses are other tourism attractions of the city.
During recent years, some of Gayen villages have attracted the tourists’ attention such as Koroh, Bazar, Karshak, Bihud. Mahmuyi is the other important village in this city which in spite of being completely ruined in different earthquakes, is still spectacular because of the existence of three hundred-years-old cypresses which are extremely wonderful.
Qayen is among the cool regions of South Khorasan and it has hard winters. The best time for traveling here is the spring. However, given to the saffron harvesting in Aban (November) this month also provides a good opportunity to visit this place and experience the process of saffron harvesting.
The main souvenirs of Qayen are saffron and curd in addition to plum and jujube.
Curd and eggplant are the local foods and different kinds of Eshkeneh are cooked by Qayen people. Curd and mountain pistachio (Ghoruti Baneh) is another local food of Qayen.
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