"You have to see Yazd!" And "Yazd is the highlight of any trip to Iran!" we hear from our travelling friends. Well then, let's get there.
Yazd is thought to have been founded over 7,000 years ago at an oasis and was described by Marco Polo as "the noble city of Yazd". It lies on a largely barren, sandy plain around 1,200 metres above sea level. The climate is said to be completely desert-like. Unfortunately, we don't notice any of this as we visit the city during a bitterly cold spell, which is not so common here.
A network of qanats (tunnels dug to channel water) connects Yazd to the edge of the nearby Shīr Kūh mountain. Historically, Yazd was the link between Persian Iraq and Kermān and was located at the crossroads of trade routes from Central Asia and India. The city served as the provincial capital and was given the title Dār al-ibada (House of Piety) due to its numerous religious buildings.
Some of the city's inhabitants are Zoroastrians whose ancestors fled to Yazd and Kermān when the Muslim Arabs conquered Iran. Today, Yazd is the last centre of Zoroastrianism in Iran.
Yazd in Iran is best known for its numerous clay and stone buildings in the historic city centre. Given the scarcity of wood and other building materials, houses, public buildings, temples and mosques were traditionally built using earthen materials. The labyrinth of earth colour is a very special sight, especially for us (few, admittedly) tourists.
So much for the theory. We arrive in Yazd and want to be centrally located so that we don't always have to take a taxi into the city centre. To do this, we first have to drive through a maze of narrow alleyways. We soon realise that this is not possible with our mobile home. The bends are too tight and the power cables hang too low. So we take the tip that many other travellers have already noted in our parking space app seriously and drive through the city, sometimes against the one-way streets. Not without getting a medium-sized "You're not allowed to do that!" attack. Only: we seem to be the only ones who take the one-way street regulations seriously. (Note: We are simply following another car and can only wonder about the interpretation of the Highway Code).
We meet the first travellers in our car park, a family from Germany and a couple from France. We get chatting, spend almost the whole afternoon chatting and stroll through the alleyways of the old clay town for the first time. The library is open to us, the view over the roofs of the city is said to be world-famous. If only it weren't for the icy wind and the freezing temperatures.
The Masjed-e Jomʿeh, the Friday Mosque, is characterised by the tallest minarets in Iran, mosaic tiles (fired clay ceramics), a magnificent mihrab (pulpit) dating from 1375 and two Gothic-style prayer rooms. This time the mosque is not a museum, but an active mosque, so we can enter without paying an entrance fee. However, although I'm wrapped up from top to toe because of the cold, I still have to put on a rental tashdor. The ladies at the entrance who help me laugh a little when they see how short the tashdor is for me. Somehow, at 1.81 metres, I'm not a typical woman, but my legs still stick out at the bottom.
In the evening, after a cosy dinner at the neighbouring Silk Road Hotel, we go to bed early - after all, the next few days are our office days and we want to get a good night's sleep.
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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