82 images Created 11 Dec 2018
Iran – Yazd and Kashan, two caravan cities between Zoroaster the Biblical Magi on the Silk Road
They are the old gates of Dasht-e Kavir, one of Iran’s two central deserts, caravan cities and harbours for merchants, pilgrims and soldiers travelling on these arid landscapes of stones and mountains. Right here, on these remote desert locations where echoes of ancient civilisations resonate down through the ages, unexpectedly is born also one of the world's oldest religions still active, the Zoroastrinism, with possible roots dating back to the second millenium BCE. Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, this monotheistic faith influenced other religious systems, including Judaism, Chistianism, Islam and Buddhism.
In Yazd, where still today lives a sizeable population of Zoroastrians, the evocative Zoroastrian Towers of Silence are still perched on barren hilltops with a theatrical landscape of mountains. It’is the old Zoroastrian cemetery, the Dakhmeh-ye Zartoshtiyun where until 1960s the bodies of the deceased where transported to their final resting place and left to the vultures. In Yazd there an elegant ateshkadeh Zoroastrian Fire Temple housing a flame that is said to have been burning since about AD 470 and transferred to Yazd in 1474. With its winding kuches (lanes) and mud-brick houses is a 'don't miss' destination, and a Unesco World Heritage site on a flat plain ringed by mountains. A masterpiece of desert architectures, and one of the oldest towns on earth, wedged between the northern Dasht-e Kavir and southern Dasht-e Lut deserts. It may not have the imposing monuments of Esfahan or Shiraz but its atmospheric alleyways and centuries of history exceeds both to enchant. No other city in Iran has been preserved so meticulously by its residents and Yazd is nicknamed also the city of the wind towers, the badgirs, still working and rising above the labyrinth of adobe roofs of the old city, which suck the hot desert air down on to a shallow pool of water and cool the house.
Kashan, the gateway city to the central desert region, is another jewel too often bypassed from many travellers, is another atmospheric oasis city with an imposing architectural heritage of old mansions of rich merchants along the Silk Road. What remains of a long history because,by some accounts, Kashan was the origin of the three wise men, the biblical Magi who followed the star that guided them to Bethlehem to witness the nativity of Jesus, as recounted in the Bible and, whatever the historical validity of this story, the attribution of Kashan as their original home testifies to the city's prestige at the time the story was set down.
In Yazd, where still today lives a sizeable population of Zoroastrians, the evocative Zoroastrian Towers of Silence are still perched on barren hilltops with a theatrical landscape of mountains. It’is the old Zoroastrian cemetery, the Dakhmeh-ye Zartoshtiyun where until 1960s the bodies of the deceased where transported to their final resting place and left to the vultures. In Yazd there an elegant ateshkadeh Zoroastrian Fire Temple housing a flame that is said to have been burning since about AD 470 and transferred to Yazd in 1474. With its winding kuches (lanes) and mud-brick houses is a 'don't miss' destination, and a Unesco World Heritage site on a flat plain ringed by mountains. A masterpiece of desert architectures, and one of the oldest towns on earth, wedged between the northern Dasht-e Kavir and southern Dasht-e Lut deserts. It may not have the imposing monuments of Esfahan or Shiraz but its atmospheric alleyways and centuries of history exceeds both to enchant. No other city in Iran has been preserved so meticulously by its residents and Yazd is nicknamed also the city of the wind towers, the badgirs, still working and rising above the labyrinth of adobe roofs of the old city, which suck the hot desert air down on to a shallow pool of water and cool the house.
Kashan, the gateway city to the central desert region, is another jewel too often bypassed from many travellers, is another atmospheric oasis city with an imposing architectural heritage of old mansions of rich merchants along the Silk Road. What remains of a long history because,by some accounts, Kashan was the origin of the three wise men, the biblical Magi who followed the star that guided them to Bethlehem to witness the nativity of Jesus, as recounted in the Bible and, whatever the historical validity of this story, the attribution of Kashan as their original home testifies to the city's prestige at the time the story was set down.
