Dehaq

Dehaq is a town in Mehrdasht District of Najafabad County, on the high plateau east of the Zagros Mountains, in the irrigated country west of Isfahan. This is dry interior land where settlements depend on wells, channels and careful use of arable land, drawing on the water of the Zayandeh River basin. Villages like Dehaq were small centres in the hinterland of Isfahan, which became the Safavid capital in 1598 and drew grain, fruit and craft goods from the surrounding countryside.

Gardens, household plots and shade trees mark the deliberate creation of colour, shade and food within a dry setting, and the plateau is not naturally lush. Dehaq’s identity therefore rests on the ordinary work of maintaining a settlement on Iran’s central plateau: household water use, cultivation, and ties along the roads toward Isfahan.