The Sialk mounds of Kashan with an archaeologist
From the first village dwellers of the central Iranian plateau to Sialk's great mudbrick platform, in a single day.
دکتر میلاد هاشمی
Paleolithic archaeologist
I search for the traces of the earliest humans, where a few pieces of stone tools reveal signs of the technology, thinking and life story of humans tens and hundreds of thousands of years ago! Come with me on a journey into the Paleolithic world!
About this experience
The Sialk mounds on the edge of Kashan are among the oldest settlements on the central Iranian plateau: people began building homes here around seven thousand years ago, fired painted pottery, and later raised a great mudbrick platform known today as the Sialk ziggurat. Sialk is always open, has guards and caretakers, and there's a site museum beside the mounds that displays several burials exactly where they were discovered. Dr. Milad Hashemi is a Paleolithic archaeologist who usually deals with people who lived long before the people of Sialk. That's why this visit is told from a fresh angle: how humans, who had been hunter-gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years, settled down, and what they gained and lost with that choice. We stand beside the old trenches, read the layers, and follow Sialk's pottery from one period to the next. Lunch is in Kashan, and we return to Tehran in the late afternoon. The meeting point is Tehran for the option with transport, and the entrance of the Sialk Hills site museum for the other option. Dates will be announced right here after coordination with Dr. Hashemi. Photos of Sialk are by Diego Delso and Ninaras, and the pottery photos by SpeakingArch, on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0 and CC BY 4.0).
This page has been translated. The languages your host speaks are listed under Details.
Booking options
2 options; the price changes with your choicePick one of the options below. That price is what your booking will use.
What's included
Entry ticket to the Sialk Hills site museum Dr. Milad Hashemi's company and storytelling Lunch in Kashan Transport from Tehran, only with the “With transport from Tehran” option Experience certificate
What to bring
Hat, sunscreen and water Comfortable shoes Clothes suited to the season
Frequently asked questions
Is Sialk connected to the Paleolithic?
Not directly; Sialk dates from the Neolithic and later periods. But Dr. Hashemi tells it from the perspective of someone who studies a time hundreds of thousands of years earlier, and that makes the story of settling down all the more tangible.
Is it suitable for children?
Ages 10 and up. The visit route is level, with little walking.
Do we visit anywhere else in Kashan?
The program focuses on Sialk. We have lunch in Kashan and head back in the late afternoon.
When will the dates be announced?
They'll be posted right here after coordination with Dr. Hashemi.
Details
- Age group
- All ages
- Host language
- Persian
- Location
- تپههای سیلک، کاشان
Where we'll meet
تپههای سیلک، کاشان