20th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Travel
The forgotten village

Sar Agha Sayed village is located deep in the Zagros mountain. To get there, one has to get onto dirt road for hours and into the mountains where there's nothingness except for wildlife. It is a village for 1000 people with only 1 toilet. They rely on spring water and generator for electricity. For 5 months in a year, they are trapped in this village as the winter snow block the only access to the village. There is no doctor or dentist much less a clinic. In one winter, where a villager got severely sick, 40 villagers took turn in carrying him on a stretcher through the mountain pass in thick snow, for 2 days and 2 nights to reach the nearest village with road access to the hospital. The houses or shacks are built on top of one another. The roof of the house below is also the courtyard for the house above. The architecture is very unique.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 11.2021
Date Uploaded: 11.2022
Photo Location: Chegerd, Iran
Copyright: © Callie Chee