On The Road

I arrive at the gate of Pasargadae, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great (559-530 BC), at 7:30. I have a chat with the friendly guards and they let me in early. The site is laid out to face the evening sun. So, there is not much to take pictures of in the morning other than the back side of, what most believe to be, the grave of Cyrus the Great.

The different parts of the city are quite spread out and I drive around and hike to various ruins for a while.

A little roadside shop owner evidently is an Ahmadinejad supporter

In Abarqu I stop to look at an old ice house

and a Cyprus tree, supposedly 4000 years old.

There are other interesting things to see here but it is too hot for that at around noon. The town is clearly hoping to attract foreign visitors and they have installed signs in English everywhere. After the city I hit on a 40km stretch of brand new four lane highway and I let it rip.

I stop to explore a crumbling caravansary at the side of the road.

I make it to Yazd in good time and head to the Silk Road Hotel. The guy I check in with is completely clueless and too lazy to even lift his feet. Just like last time. On the plus side that makes him a push over on the price. For parking he just points to a space at the back door and disappears. I maneuver the bike in by myself.

This is a gem of a place and I have stayed here before. Some of the people who work here are super motivated and friendly, others (relatives of the owner maybe?) just couldn’t care less and leave some travelers thoroughly disappointed after all the hype they chose to believe.

Yazd is a very old city, some say more than 7000 years old. Luckily, there still is a compact old city core with alleys too narrow for cars and thus it is a pleasant and quiet place to wander around in. The central point is the 15th century Jameh Mosque, just a minute walk from the Silk Road Hotel.

Nearby Amir Chakhmaq square is a nice place to sit late in the afternoon

by the fountain and have an ice cream or two, or three..

The narrow alleys of old Yazd are easily explored on foot or by motorbike, just leave your panniers at the hotel or you might get stuck.

The old town is a sea of badgirs, tall wind towers that direct any breeze into the house and hot air out of it. Often air is directed over an ancient underground water channel, a qanat, for extra cooling. A genius system that really works. There are a few things to be learned from the old Persians about living in the desert.

I pay a visit to the Zoroastrian Fire Temple

with the winged man, the symbol of the Zoroastrianism, on top of the temple.

Many of the old doors still have his and hers door knockers.

Their modern counterparts have door bells with intercoms and cameras.

Old Yazd looks especially nice at sunset.

A number of Qajar era mansion have been restored.

A bazaar side street:

At night many of the buildings are lit

and the views from the Orient Hotel’s roof top restaurant are magnificent.

P.S.: This is what I’m looking at while I write this in the Orient Hotel courtyard. Life can be tough

Predictably I get “stuck” in Yazd for a few extra days. It’s just too nice. I read a bit, wander around the city and generally just relax. The way a vacation should be.

Most of the time the old city is completely deserted because everything happens behind the thick walls. I do run into some very curious kids, though.

An interesting place to go to is the Saheb a Zaman Club Zurkhaneh to see a workout Iranian style. The club is in the town’s old water reservoir. It seems to be a very reglemented type of workout with a bunch of men standing in a circle, doing various exercises. There is an MC, beating a drum and reciting/singing something in Farsi, some say it’s poetry. The men are of all ages, shapes, sizes, and fitness levels. This is a very hard one hour workout. Quite fascinating really.

They have normal weight lifting gyms too and it is quite popular. Every news stand has a few weight lifting magazines with the nastiest, steroid pumped, 80s style muscle men posing on the cover. There are many stores selling supplements and you see some of the steroid types in the streets too.

I found some strange graffiti

and the ubiquitous religious propaganda

Oh, and then there was the “Nazi Tweety” store.

Would you trust that man,

or the camel butcher?

Kids play football

and Yazdies swing into action a couple of hours before sunset.

The locals enjoy ice cream as much as I do.