The Highest Minarets in Dar-es Islam

Location: ITTIC Tourist Inn, Yazd, Iran
Date: 2nd May, 2008

After a late start, we toured the sights of Yazd today, starting with the Zoroastrian Fire Temple. I was a little disappointed as the atmosphere wasn’t overly spiritual, blame the tourists for that and the fact that the flame, the “Ateshkadeh”, was burning behind a piece of glass. The flame has been burning for over 1500 years, which is quite impressive. I imagine the High Priest has many alarm clocks!

Still, it was interesting to see a temple of the worlds oldest monotheistic religion, to which Judaism, Christianity and Islam all owe a debt.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m reading Paul William Roberts book, “The Journey of the Magi“, which is ideal ready for a journey through Iran. It’s particularly interesting if you’d like to know more about the Magi, who were Zoroastrian, and the influence of Zoroastrianism had during the early days of the three major religions.

We also visited the “Highest Minarets in all of Islam”, at the Jameh Mosque. At almost 50m high, and soaring up from the beautiful tiled portal, it does send quite a message - and as it was also built over a Zoroastrian Fire Temple after the Arab invasion, I suppose that was the idea…

After a quick trip to the water museum, which was crawling with tourists and is quite basic, we visited the Amir Chakhmaq, a takieh that you can climb for great views of Yazd, where it’s possible to see dozens of windtowers. I felt a bit like I was in a game of “Assasins Creed“, but I declined to take the “Leap of Faith“, and made my way down the narrowest and steepest staircase I’ve ever climbed.

After a quick bite at the Hamum-e Khan Restaurant, a converted bathhouse, or Hammam, in the bazaar, complete with all the original blue and white tilework, we returned to the hotel for a well deserved siesta.