Stunning Iran (Part 3)

DAY 4: Cyrus’ Tomb à Yakhchal (Ice Storage Tower) à Drive to Yazd

From Shiraz we drove to the City of Yazd, along the way we stopped at the burial site of Cyrus the Great in the middle of the Iranian desert, in the ancient town of Pasargadae. This place is still being excavated and at the moment there’s not much to see here. It was also plundered by Alexander the Great, so all that really remains intact is the tomb.

As the “father of the Iranian nation,” Cyrus II of Persia, known as Cyrus the Elder by the Greeks, was the first world leader to be given the epithet “the Great,” due to his conquering the Median, Lydian, and Neo-Babylonian empires.

We then drove for 4-6 hours after lunch and made a stop just outside the city of Yazd to see a Yakhchal – an ice storage tower.

How would they make ice and store it in a place where it can have desert-like temperature?

left photo: inside the Yakhchal

Well at night it can get really cold, so they built this tower, and there’s a canal of some sort outside of the tower. The people would fill the canal with water in the winter and it would freeze. Once the water was frozen they would take chunks of it and store it in this tower that was dug below ground level and also had an upside-down cone top. This would allow the temperature inside to stay cool. They would seal the doors where they dropped the ice in and that helps to keep the temperature and ice from melting. When they need ice they would break open the door to take the ice out.

After this, we made our way into Yazd.

above: the canal leading up to the Yakhchal
below: inside the Yakhchal

Day 5: Tower of Silence à Zoroastrian Fire Temple à Friday Mosque à Yazd old city à Dolat Abad Garden à Drive to Isfahan

After breakfast we went to visit the Tower of Silence. This is a circular, raised structure built by Zoroastrians for excarnation – that is, for dead bodies to be exposed to carrion birds, usually vultures, to feed on, and all that remains in the end are the bones.

Little figures walking up to the Tower of Silence

Originally these towers were built far from towns and only the keepers of these towers were allowed to carry the bodies up the tower (there weren’t any stairs back then, they probably had to climb up the wall/rock face while somehow carrying the bodies). The bodies were placed at the top of the tower on a sort of “terrace” in a circle and there was a pit in the middle for the bones after the birds had eaten all the flesh.

These towers are no longer used because the surrounding cities started growing and became too close to the towers. This caused concern for illness and pollutants in the water system. Now they have opened this up for tourists so there are stairs built to take you up to the top.

The place is deserted and looks like scenery from a sci-fi movie like Star Wars or Planet of the Apes.

In one of the “buildings” (? Not really sure what to call them), there was an old man who looks like a grounds keeper, and not many people enter the building that he has somehow ‘taken over’. When you enter the building, he tells you immediately where to stand, and then gestures to take your camera to take a photo for you. I must say the building has these large windows and openings that make very nice frames for the scenery behind it.

There’s no sign that says you need to pay and he doesn’t have a bowl or anything to collect money, but I gave him a dollar anyways for his help and to thank him for helping to maintain the site.

The next stop was to the Zoroastrian Fire Temple. Zoroastrism started in Persia and was the official religion. Today there are less Zoroastrians as Islam is the main religion.

The Zoroastrians believe that you must speak good words, think good thoughts and do good deeds. In the temple grounds there is a bowl of fire that is said to have never extinguished and it’s continually burning. There is also a small museum and photo gallery explaining their community and how children and adults dress etc. quite interesting for a small temple. It is also quite popular as a place of worship, so we found that it was quite crowded, especially when we added our group of 40 adults.

Afterwards, we were supposed to go to the Jame Mosque of Yazd (aka Friday Mosque) – this mosque is featured on the 200 Rials bill, but it was closed for a break, so we made an impromptu stop at a Jewish Synagogue that was nearby. For some reason, our tour guide said he knew of a Jewish Synagogue in the area. He brought us there but he said that he is not allowed to be there, and it was all very secretive. He knocked on a door and someone opened the door a crack and peered out. He agreed to let us into the synagogue.

As we were waiting to be let into the grounds, we took photos of the gate and plaque which is in Persian so we can’t read it… haha and then our tour guide suddenly realized that he was in our photos, so he told us not to take photos with him in the frame.

When we were let inside, we found the place quite messy and it seems more like a place for casual gatherings rather than a place of worship.

When we left the synagogue, we took a walk in the old city of Yazd. The walkways are like hallways and you could easily get lost as there’s no signage and nearly every “hallway” looks the same with tall sandy walls and closed wooden doors that lead into residences. I guess this might be what Morocco’s markets will be like but with a lot more activity.

 above left & right: both little girls are selling items in front of their home.

One home looks to be in disrepair, the other looks like they have a well-maintained home

below: the tallest minaret in Iran at Yazd's Friday Mosque

above right: in the entry way of the main doors or Friday mosques, there's a chain that is called a "wish chain" -

as people pass through the doorway, they can reach up to touch the chain and make a wish

We made a stop quickly into the Friday Mosque after the break and they were setting up a huge tent because there was going to be a big worship service that evening. The tour guide showed us the tallest minarets in Iran, some more of the honeycomb ceiling and tile work and then we were back walking through the hallways of the old city.

For lunch, we had a rare change, no buffet style dishes today. We went to an Italian restaurant that served steak, pasta and pizza. The steak I had was quite good. There’s also a beautiful garden just outside where customers could sit on the large bench/beds under vines and fig and pomegranate trees.

below left: Iranian beer (non-alcoholic), I think it had a peach flavour with some fizz

After lunch we went to Dolat Abad Garden, this is where we can see an example of a wind tower – which functions like a fan to bring cool wind when it can get very hot during the summer in the driest city of Iran. Yazd is the city of wind catchers (Badgir in Persian) because this was where they were first invented and has the most numbers of wind towers/catchers.

We couldn’t spend too much time here as we had to drive to Isfahan, but the garden grounds are huge. I can see how much Iranians love having gardens, everywhere we visited they have gardens.

DAY 6: Abassi Hotel à Khaju Bridge à Pigeon Tower à Monar Jonban (Shaking Minarets) à à Isfahan Jame Mosque à Night View of Khaju Bridge
Hast Beheste

The hotel we stayed in in Isfahan is called Abassi Hotel and it used to be a caravan rest stop way back in the days. It was also the vacation palace for the Queen Mother of Persia at one time, so the décor is very beautiful. As it’s an old building, the halls and common areas are all very nice, but the actual hotel rooms are quite old and dated. I wish they would update the rooms……

We woke up early and had breakfast in their dining hall with beautiful blue table cloths, antique chairs and a stunning view of the courtyard garden.

After breakfast, we walked all around the hotel taking photos of every detail.

When everyone was gathered we left to visit Khaju Bridge, this is a bridge that was built on the Zayanderud river, and it used to be a really great place to gather at in the summer and sit on the steps while the water rushed past, but now the river is dammed and only once a year is water allowed to run through the river – but I guess it’s still a popular place for people to gather.

The design of the bridge has steps that people can sit on and water will run down both sides of the steps. Also there’s a gallery of arches on two levels. The bridge was originally built around 1650 and is a symbol of the Persian bridge architecture.

what the view would be like if the river had water, people can sit on the steps as waters run under the bridge

After walking across the bridge and taking photos, we went to a pigeon tower where the city’s pigeons were kept and used for, not for carrying letters/messages, but rather for their droppings! The droppings were used to fertilize their watermelon and cucumber fields. Now there are no pigeons living there, but we were allowed to go up into the tower and you can see some pigeons circling the tower and the area around it. It’s said that at its peak, Isfahan had more than 3000 pigeon towers.

Then we went to visit a mosque, Monar Jonban (Shaking Minarets), that is earthquake proof and has a warning system when an earthquake does happen. There are two tall towers on top of the mosque that move back and forth during an earthquake but they will not fall. A staff from the mosque climbed up into the tower and showed us by shaking the tower from inside. And what we saw was that when one tower was shaken the other tower also swayed. They also put a tiny bell (why didn’t they make it bigger?) to make it easier to see the swaying.

Then we went to Hast Beheste, this was a vacation pavilion and the unique thing is the ceiling in this place. They have 8 small rooms in the main building, but each room’s ceiling is carved and built a particular way to improve the acoustics. The building was probably covered in tiles and décor, but they have been removed and now it looks quite worn and there’s not much to see.

Then we went to lunch at a restaurant that seems quite famous. There were lots of locals there and the interior is decorated so beautifully, making use of colour, stainglass and mirrors. We also had fish!!!! It was good! But we saw that locals ordered some other dishes, wish we could have tried some other things. But we did have saffron ice cream!

Then we went to visit the city’s Jame Mosque. This is much larger than the one we visited in Yazd. Just outside the mosque we ran into a group of young students on a field trip. They were taking photos of us taking photos of them. HAHA!

The reason why Jame Mosques are also called Friday Mosques is because they are congregational mosques where people come together for worship and prayer, and also there’s a special Friday noon prayer held every week.

The Jame Mosque in Isfahan is one of the oldest standing mosques in Iran, and before it was a mosque it was a Zoroastrian temple. The mosque has gone through quite a few restoration and new buildings have been added over time, so it shows a history of different architectural styles in Iran.

After the mosque we went back to our hotel and had time before dinner to walk around the streets in Isfahan. Across from our hotel there’s a little plaza, and we walked around but there’s nothing really interesting – lots of bookstores. My mom was looking for a sharpener for her eyeliner, and we decided to go into one of the stationery stores there and asked them if they had a pencil sharpener.

The staff there didn’t know any English, but I used hand gesture to show pencil sharpened, but he showed me a really fancy pencil sharpener like those that you stick a pencil in and use a handle to turn to sharpen the pencil. Then I used the internet to search and showed him we wanted the simplest looking one, and luckily he had some in the store! We were the happiest with this purchase!

above left: someone doing their prayers on the side of the road

above right: there's also a cafe/coffee culture starting up in Iran too

below right: we saw lots of fabric stores selling chadors and wraps - black seems to be a very popular colour

Then we walked a bit further from the hotel and there were lots of little shops selling fruit and nuts, honey, food etc. On our way back to the hotel, we stepped into a little shopping arcade (which reminded me of the ones I see in Hong Kong), where there are independent stores and they may sell a bunch of random items not related to each other.

There happened to be a store that sells headscarves and shawls, and on the store window there was a sign:

We went into the store and there was one young woman there who helped us take out scarves and shawls. She also helped us to put it on in a way that they would tie/wrap in Iran. It was fun trying it on, and even though she didn’t speak English, we were somehow able to understand each other. She gestured at my hat because she found it funny (I wore a wide brim camping hat instead of a headscarf because it was so hot to have it wrapped around me all the time – the tour guide said it was ok to wear a hat as long as my hair was covered) and she seemed interested in knowing about where we came from and how we dressed.

We ended up buying 12 scarves/shawls!

That night after dinner we went back to Khaju Bridge to take some photos of the night view when it’s all lit up. There were lots of locals meeting in separate sections of the bridge, seems like a popular place.