In a far from anywhere location within the Country of Afghanistan there exists a village of an unusual kind. This village has for cenuries existed without interferrance from modern cultures, and remains as it stood a thousand years prior to this.



the unusual aspect of this village is in the way it"s architecture is layed out. This architecture wasn"t designed by the hands of men, It was however certainly assisted by them. This fact is readily shown due to the unusual formation this village was designed within, which happens to be an outcropping of rocks at the foot of an ancient and weathered mountain range!



The composition of this rock outcropping consists of a form of densly packed conglomerate, a sedimentary based rock form. Large and medium sized boulders, rounded out via glaciation during the last Ice Age, became densly packed together within sandstone to form a Gacial Rill at the foot of these mountains. It"s the only formation of it"s kind in the region.



The composition of the rock not only is formed strong enough to stand the elements and the decay of time, but it also remains pliable enough to be worked by men to hollow out from it cavernous spaces where these Afghani people reside, a practice carried through from more remote times, when mankind used to create these types of living environments before they understood that they could construct homes outside of rock shelters.









This appears to be one of those "If it"s not broke, why fix it" types of scenarios. The rock formation provides a stable form of shelter, and exists reletively close to a river that has cut a shallow canyon across the fron of this rock outcropping. Across from the river there exists a wide fertile plain, where these villagers have adopted the use of to farm and to tend to livestock.









Living quarters design

Electricity to this establishment arrived just a couple of years ago, along with telephone services, the only running water available comming via the river. These shelters have glass windows and wooden doors, however there appears to be no form of insulating medium to keep the elements out, just carved hollows through the face of the rock that opens up to a denu usually near the doorway of the living structure. From the den another hollow is carved out to represent the sleeping quarters. Food Preparation is done in another carved out hollow, where rocky hearths are formed and chutes provided through the rock to allow the smoke from their cooking fires to escape.







While modern anemeties aren"t present, these people still are able to furnish these living environments lavishly, with persian rugs and other relics of simple living environments that make these homes from the stone age comfortable and cozy. You know that this village definitely has it together regarding how to live in peace and harmony, not only with eachother, but with nature as well... certainly something of a lesson the rest of mankind could definitely learn!