🕒 3 minuet read
Welcome to one of the oldest adobe cities of the world. Yazd consistently has been one of the major touristy cities of Iran that is very well known for its architecture and adobe monuments. It’s located along the road of Tehran-Bandar-e Abbas and it’s in the vicinity of central desert of Iran with about 1.1 million inhabitants.
History:
It’s always interesting to know about the history of the civilizations and presence of any particular city. The first time in history when it is called Yazd dates back to Sassanian era as the name of the city comes from the name of King Yazdgerd I. In his period back in 399–420 CE, a mint was established in (under the mint abbreviation of “YZ”), which demonstrates its increasing importance.
Many historians are of the opinion that the city itself has been existed before Sassanian dynasty but it’s just renovated and refunded again by Yazdgerd I as he was the son of the King Bahram 438–457 CE. It’s well noted that Yazd translated into the English Translation God and it kept its name even after Arabs conquest.
The situation after Islam invaded Persia was very inconvenience for many Zoroastrians as they were struggling to practice the religion but they were forced to move to other countries such as India. The 2nd option was just a levy is which was counted by rulers and was higher than other Muslims for those who were willing to keep the religion and stay in their home town. However, some of them moved to villages of to neighborhoods in rural areas.
Back & forth it’s been always important in Islamic history especially in Mozafarrid dynasty that they used to part of the trading communities along the silk route countries. In this golden age, other cities got appeared such as Meybod and its defensive castle. Yazd is also known as the city that resided Iranian Zoroastrians who have always been living here and populous at about 10% of total inhabitants. They also had their own Temple but unfortunately, by invasion of Arabs, Jame Mosque appeared on top of the old temple for about 13 centuries until the community decided to bring back the royal flame of ancient temple to this town.
Things to do in Yazd;
It’s a decent feeling to know before hands about the different types of possible activities in every single town around the globe. Doesn’t matter from which city you are off too, there are many activities to do such as visiting Friday Mosque (locally called Jame Mosque), Seyed Rokn-o-din mausoleum, Zarch Qanat, Dowlat Abad Garden with its the highest wind-catchers of the world, Water Museum, Fire Temple, Towers of Silence, etc.
There are also some day trip tours to nearest cities and villages around such visiting Meybod with its ancient castle, Pigeon Tower, Ice-House, Chaparkhaneh or even tour to Chak Chak as the holy place of Zoroastrians could be very exciting. There are several overnight-stay tours such as going to Karakal desert, Zein-o-din caravansary or even going to taft and staying with Zoroastrians could be wonderful experience. Another route of traveling to Yazd is from Shiraz that enables you visiting Abarkouh and its marverlous monuments.
Hotels:
As this is a mud-brick city, it could be a decent feeling to stay in boutique hotels that are originally old mansions and converted into fabulous hotels. Today these hotels play an important role in tourism of the city and accommodate travelers from all over the world. Some of the them are in large sizes such as Dad hotel and Moshir garden hotel. In another way some of them are in the standard of 3* or 4* that make a pleasant trip for all of us.
Foods:
It’s always important as one of the main factors of traveling to try local dishes of every single city. Being invited to a Yazdi house makes a fabulous journey as they cook separately than in restaurants. Apparently some of the main dishes are Shouli, Tas Kabab Shotor, Qeymeh rizeh but in the houses you might be exposed to different versions.
Sweets & Pastries:
You can’t imagine how hard it could be to live in a particular city with several types of sweets and pastries in every single corner. there are a bunch of sweets that are available in every market such as Baqlava, Haji Badam, Loz, … that are quite sweet. This is the reason that over than 50% of the its population are in Diabetes.