Travelogue Summer 2018/2 Fire, water, air and mud in Yazd (Iran)

We rented a taxi for the day to take us from Shiraz to Yazd (430km) so we could stop en route in Persepolis. 2500 years ago this was an important capital, and you could still see beautiful remains.

In Yazd we found a lovely hostel with nice rooms on a roof terrace. There we could sit together, eat, drink tea with a view of the city. Yazd is smaller than Shiraz and has a more provincial feel.

Yazd 

We wanted to take a walk through the mud alleys to the Friday Mosque. As the crow flies no more than 500 meters. The houses are turned inwards, so towards the street you mainly see walls with some small windows and doors. Because everything was muddy-brown, it seemed like one design. Some alleys were covered, then there were turns and squares, domes and arches. It was very quiet, every now and then a lady covered in black passed in the distance.

Yazd mud buildings

Because of the twisting and turning of the alleys we totally lost our sense of direction. The maps in the guidebook and even google did not show many alleys, so we did not know which way to go. We asked a few men which way to the Friday Mosque, and they all pointed in different directions. Eventually we saw the tall minarets and managed to keep our course. In the bazaar and in the street towards the mosque, which had been very busy last night, it was very quiet now. After all, Friday morning is a kind of Sunday morning. A few domestic tourists wanted to take a picture with us, with the impressive entrance in the background.

Yazd water supply

The Friday Mosque is decorated with a particularly beautiful mosaic of tiles, many abstract lines, lots of blue. There were some people around making phone calls or sleeping, otherwise it was quiet. A man told us about the qanats, underground channels that used to supply water from the mountains. Now the system is polluted and closed, and the water comes from Isfahan.

We visited the water museum. Actually an old mansion, but suitable as the water museum because there are not one but two old qanats underneath, from which can be tapped. Through narrow tunnels that had been excavated underground, the water ran out of the mountains to the city. Rich families could get water in their cellar. The bottom channel is so deep that there is a cool space where you could store food and the family could sit during sweltering afternoons.

We took a taxi to the Zoroastrian fire temple just outside the city center. Zoroastrianism has its origins in this region and is one of the oldest surviving religions in the world. In a garden stood a couple of buildings, above the door the symbol with two long wings and all kinds of details that had a specific meaning. With themes like "good thinking, doing good" and "karma" there were many concepts recognizable from Buddhism. The "eternal flame" burned behind glass. This particular specimen has been burning for 1,500 years, another one outside the city for 6,000 years. In another building was a large photo exhibition with images of daily life of Zoroastrians from the area of ​​Yazd.

Yazd fire temple

Air coolers en wind towers

The first time I saw one was in Rajasthan in 2001. My hotel room had a pack of straw in front of the window with a fan behind it. If you wet the straw and the air flows through it (wind or fan) you get a cool airflow. Meanwhile, there are more modern versions with a grid instead of straw, and a few years ago I even bought one to use at home. For those few warm days a year.

In Iran we saw plenty of air coolers. Ideal because, unlike an air conditioner, they work in an open space, so you can leave your shop door open. And they use much less power, although that does not seem to matter much in Iran. We saw them in shops, in workshops, in restaurants and even on top of a city bus!

Yazd wind towers

Also, in the desert cities Yazd and Kashan you have the ancient wind towers. High towers that protrude above the buildings, and catch the slightest hint of wind in the air in some kind of reverberation holes. That air then falls down the hollow tower, where it flows through the living room like a cool breeze.

We knew it would be warm, in June, in central Iran. But it was "hot for the time of year" and afternoon temperatures varied from 37 to 42 degrees Celsius. "Close to forty" is a totally different temperature zone than "low thirties", which we have a couple of days a year in the Netherlands. All objects are warmer than you are, everything radiates heat and feels warmer than your skin when you touch it. You dehydrate instantly. In the afternoon the sun is almost straight above you and burns mercilessly.

Still, it was dry air, so at least you were not crushed by a pressing sweaty mass of humidity. Hiding in the cool hotel room for a couple of hours in the afternoon was enough to keep all systems going. Emerging from your A/C room, five minutes in the sun was a breeze.

A bonus of the hot weather was that there were very few tourists around and all hotels had vacancies.