High mud walls with towers from the outer face of the houses, which have flat roofs of mud and straw supported by wooden rafters. In the open centre of the village is an occasional mosque, sometimes serving as a school, too. The cattle that used to be herded there are now usually kept outside. The houses are square, mud-brick, windowless buildings with flat or domed roofs. The stable is usually under the house.
Caspian villages are completely different.
Here, where there is an abundance of water, the scattered hamlets have two-story wooden houses, frequently built on pilings, with a gallery around the upper floor. Urban settlement Urban settlement has a long precedent in Iran. At present, around 50 per cent of the population lives in the big and medium-size cities. The biggest city of all is the capital, Tehran. Other big cities are Mashad, Shiraz, Rasht, Isfahan, Tabriz, followed by the medium-size cities like Ahvaz, Saari, Kermanshah, Hamedan, Kerman, Yazd and others.