Day 100: Yay for Yazd!

I caught a five hour bus east from Esfahan across one edge of the Dasht-e Kavir desert to the picturesque city of Yazd.  I'd been told by a few different travelers that Yazd was their highlight of Iran, so I was really keen to settle down for a few days and explore the city and the region.

I checked in to the aptly-named Silk Road Hotel (I'm trying to retrace its route after all!) and settled down for the evening.  For the first time since I arrived in Iran I met several other backpackers and travelers, and I have to admit it was great to be able to speak something more than pigeon English again!  The hotel is awesome – a converted merchant's house, with a delighful central courtyard (they're very common here and remind me of another hot place – southern Spain around Sevilla) and rooftop area perfect for enjoying tea and a qalyan (water pipe) in the evenings.  Check out the pics – not bad for $5 a night, eh?!

After my first good night's sleep in a while, I rolled out of bed, threw my boots on and went to explore the old city.  First stop was the Jameh (Friday) Mosque right next door to the hotel which has a huge entrance portal topped with two beautifully tiled minarets from the 15th century.

Another highlight of the region around Yazd are its "qanats".  These are underground water channels that have been dug and maintained for centuries.  They carry water from the base of the mountains and fresh springs into the towns (for drinking etc.) and fields (for agriculture).  If there's any one thing that makes living in this dry desert environment possible, it's the qanats.  All through the city you see stairways down to the qanats where people used to go and collect water in jugs, and I was able to explore a couple.  I also had a look in the interesting Water Museum and was astounded by some of the figures – the tunnels are sometimes over 60km long, dug completely by hand, and have been used in Iran for over 2000 years.  Amazing!  Unfortunately, since electric pumps came along, the water table has dropped so far that most of them aren't in use any more.

Like most of the towns around here the majority of the buildings are constructed out of mud and straw (perfect for all the earthquakes that Iran gets – remember Bam?), but the great thing about this place is that there's a really good concentration of them in the old city centre.  It was great fun to wander around the alleys and get thoroughly lost.  It was interesting to see the many "badgirs" – these are ingenious old ventilation "air cooling" systems sometimes over 30m tall that catch any breeze over the city and draw it into the house, cooling it with water on the way down.  There are many still in use.

I wandered through the town and had a look at some of the sights along the way – a water reservoir with its own badgirs, the Tomb of the 12 Imams etc.  I made my way to the derelict Hosseinieh and was allowed to climb onto the roof for sunset.  I finally had my first unobstructed views over the town to the flat desert expanses and dramatic mountains beyond – fantastic!  A real highlight of my trip to Iran.