John Wotherspoon's travelogue in Iran
John's travelogue to family and friends back home has been a wonderful read. Here is just one of his daily recaps on his travel in Iran.
From Yadz to Esfahan
We left the desert city of Yazd this morning, famed for its Zoroastrian community, honest and industrious people and trading links with Asia. Marco Polo passed through Yazd and human occupation dates back as far as 5,000BC. Today, the old city is a mud brick (adobe) citadel of narrow streets constructed to maintain cool conditions as much as possible - the Central Desert is nearby to the east.
On the way we stopped for morning tea at a group of 3 caravanserais (ancient motels) the youngest being 17th Century. We stopped for morning tea yesterday at an old caravanserai that had been renovated by an enterprising Iranian who'd leased the building from the Govt (all caravanserais are the property of the Govt). During the 8 years of Ahmadinejad's presidency, tourism slowed to a crawl and when the lease came to the end of its term, the operator asked for an extension on the grounds that he'd made no money to recover his costs! He should have been given some compensation.
From morning teas the odd workings of my brain stray to toileting here in Iran! The toilet paper here is a downsized version of Scot-Towels - utiliitarian without any attempt to pamper. It took a while for me to notice, but the intent here is to use it for the intended purpose and then deposit it in an adjacent plastic bag lined bin rather than flush it down the loo. So at the first couple of places, they may now be struggling to unplug the sewage system and cursing western visitors - but you'll be pleased to know I'm on the straight and narrow now.
On our path to Esfahan we also visited Nayin, a Sassanian town which has a 10th century mosque that was worth a visit as was the old bazaar (a Persian word, the arabic being a souk). About 5pm we made it to Esfahan, which is truly excellent. Its exact history is unclear but some history about it dates back to the Arabian conquest in 643AD, the Turkish Seljuks also ruled here for a while with Tuqhul making it his capital in 1047 and even the Mongols who fortunately swiped most of its artisans for work elsewhere but otherwise left it untouched. However, Esfahan's greatest glory was under Persian Sassanid rule. I'm sure you'll remember those guys. Shah Abbas the Great moved his capital here in 1598 and spent the rest of his life beautifying it. Though it's had some ups and downs since, it remains the most magnificent of Iran's cities. So far, it definitely gets my vote. John.