This paper addresses firstly the role of hills in the spatial configuration of hill towns and then discusses the spatial potential of these elements as public places within the city of Sanandaj, Iran. The hills as shared cultural customs logically belong to the public and through the active presence of the public they construct more sustainable meanings and functions. However, some processes during the past urban development of Sanandaj were attempting to decline or delete the public role of the hills. The categorisation of the inappropriate and appropriate patterns in the socio-spatial configuration of the hills is accessible through the analysing these processes. The effective processes of the hills were classified as the political-economic, narrative and development-based processes. The paper applied phenomenological and qualitative methods to ascertain the hills and effective processes in the social life of the spatial realms - the top, slope (buffer) and bottom. The data collection was conducted by using the theoretical and historical texts alongside the field observations. The results including the interpretations, logical and graphical analysis highlight that the meaning, private and public function of the left hills within the built fabric of Sanandaj has a tie relationship with the top configuration of the hills and the way that have been occupied by the institutions of power or public foundations.
