Yazd--Iran's Zoroastrian center

Tower of Silence, Yazd

Zoroastrianism was the pre-Islamic religion of Iran.  While several thousand Zoroastrians still live in Iran, mostly in Yazd, the majority live in India, where they are called Parsees. 

platform for dead bodies

When Zoroastrians die, their bodies are placed on a high platform for the vultures to pick to the bones, after which the bones are shoved to a central pit and covered with lime.  The belief is that a dead body decays, so is unclean and should not be put into the earth which produces food.  The Tower of Silence in Yazd used to be the burial platform for the Iranian Zoroastrians, but now they must bury their dead.

mountains north of Yazd

Because Yazd is a desert city surrounded by mountains, procuring and conserving water is critical.  Water comes from the mountains through underground canals called qanats.  These must be dug by small men who can work in extremely cramped (and claustrophobic) spaces.  The Water Museum in Yazd shows how the qanats were dug, an intricate process particularly when it came time to open the last barrier and start the rush of water to the city.

wind tower and summer palace

Yazd is very hot in the summer, so those who could afford it built wind towers that permitted the flow of cool air down into the summer rooms and pushed the hot air up and out the top of the tower.  The large palaces had both summer and winter spaces with beautiful gardens in between.
Part of the old city of Yazd has been preserved, a maze of narrow alleys between mud-brick buildings.  It is charming, but when I asked our guide if people liked to live there, he said, "Look at this doorway.  You have a large sofa, a car. . .where will it all go?"  There is no place to park and no way to get anything larger than a small chair or table into the dark (but cool in the summer) homes.

Jameh (Friday) Mosque, Yazd

The Friday Mosque in Yazd, another beautifully-tiled structure, was built in the 13th century and mostly rebuilt in the 14th century.  It is one of the exceptional 14th century buildings remaining in earthquake-prone Iran. 
A constant in Iran is tea.  When we were driving, we stopped several times during the journey for tea.  Roadside shops have enormous urns of tea outside where travelers stop to fill their carafes, sit on a couch (usually an old bedstead covered with an older carpet) and munch cookies or dates.

Our guide, Majid, setting up tea along the road