Classification and Practical Analysis of the Rocky Architecture in Skirts of Sahand Volcano, NW-IRAN

The main aims of this study is the characterization, introduce and typology survey the Rocky Architecture in Skirts of Sahand Volcano from the East Azerbaijan province NW Iran. For this purpose, according to fieldwork investigation and documentary Studies include: to describe the current situation for recognizing interaction of rocky architecture in the skirts of Sahand volcano. The results of the survey were recorded and collect the data from 113 rocky architectures around the Sahand Mountain on the border of the townships of East Azerbaijan province include: Tabriz, Azarshahr, Ajabshir, Bonab, Hashtrod, and Bostonabad. According to the existing archeological theory, Sahand rocky architectures were residential from the first millennium BC till now; and in the morphological point of view, it is separable from surface architecture, underground architecture and combination type of the two previous species. In general, the obtained results demonstrate that Sahand rocky architectures can divided to five categories from application typology include: 1) residential and settlement architectures, 2), Public architectures, 3) Religious and ritual architecture 4) Military architecture and 5) Other applications, Nowadays, such reasons like changing the life styles and decay process cause of poor living conditions, ruination, and seasonal residence or reusing in most rocky architectures in this area have been.