Yazd

We took a 6 hour bus ride from Shiraz to Yazd. The bus ride was comfortable as we  traveled through mountains and then the desert to arrive in Yazd. In Yazd we could see the very high, dry and steep and beautiful mountains in the distance. The highest is the 13,000 foot Mt. Shirkooh. Yazd is the oldest adobe city in the world.

A covered street in Yazd

In Yazd they have wind catchers or chimneys which capture the breeze and channel it down to flow over a pool of water to cool down the inside of a building. It was the ‘air conditioning’ to keep buildings cool in this desert land. They also had an ancient underground cistern which brought water to the city with wells throughout Yazd. One of the wells at the mosque could supply 4,000 people per day. 

Wind catchers

We went to visit the Dakhmeh where Zoroastrians used to leave their dead. Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy that was formerly among the world’s largest religion and was probably founded some time before the 6th century BC in Persia (Iran). The religion is still around today but has very few followers. Dakhmeh is on the top of two hills. They built what is called the ‘towers of silence’ each with 10 foot high walls, 100 foot in diameter on the hill top. One hill was for men and one for women. They would bring the dead bodies to these towers. The walls were to keep the animals out except the vultures. A priest would sit with the dead. If the vultures plucked the right eye out first it was believed that was a good person. I’ll bet there were a few surprises when it became known which eye was eaten first. They no longer do this practice.

The Zoroastrians bury their dead at the top of this hill

Traditionally there were two door knockers on every entry door in Iran, one for the men to use and one for the women to use. The sound is different with each knock, this way the women of the house know hot to present themselves in appropriate  dress.

Women knocker on the right men on the left 

The  hotel we stayed at in Yazd was in the old adobe city and had the traditional hard bed and a “camper” bathroom. The call to prayer at 5 am was not only loud but went on for 15 minutes. The British Iranian woman who had a room next to us said her mother cursed the call to prayer. So did I! Breakfast is hard boiled eggs some dried flat bread.

A bakery at Yazd