Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Laleh Teahouse Restaurant
(see 10)
Information
Ama Safar Tour & Travel Agency
(see 7)
Silk Road Travel
(see 14)
22
Tourist Information
C2
23
Tourist Information Office
D1
Sights
OLD CITYميدق تفاب
The city's historic centre emerges like a phoenix from the desert - a very old phoenix.
Yazd's old city is one of the oldest towns on earth, according to Unesco, and is the perfect
place to get a feel for the region's rich history. Just about everything here - including 2000
Qajar-era houses - is made from sun-dried mud bricks, and the resulting brown skyline is
dominated by tall
badgirs
on almost every rooftop. The residential quarters appear almost
deserted because of the high walls, which shield the houses from the narrow and
labyrinthine
kuches
(lanes) that criss-cross the town.
Follow our walking tour (
Click here
)
or just wander around; you'll discover covered
walkways, simple courtyards, ornate wooden doors and some lovely adobe architecture.
And be sure to get yourself to the rooftops at some point for fine views over Yazd and into
the vast brown expanses of the desert.
MOSQUE
Masjed-e Jamehعماج دجسم
(Jameh Mosque; Masjed-e Jameh St)
Dominating the old city, this magnificent building
has a tiled entrance portal that is one of the tallest in Iran, flanked by two magnificent
48m-high minarets and adorned with an inscription from the 15th century. The exquisite
mosaics on the dome and mihrab, and the tiles above the main western entrance to the
courtyard are particularly stunning. The
gardoneh mehr
(swastika symbol) used on the
tiles symbolises infinity, timelessness, birth and death and can be found on Iranian build-
ings dating back as early as 5000 BC.
Built for Sayyed Roknaddin in the 15th century, the mosque is on the site of a 12th-cen-
tury building believed to have itself replaced an earlier fire temple. In the courtyard there
