Yazd

With a huge grin, I consumed my first ever camel burger. It was lunch time. Just earlier, I had arrived in Yazd and checked in at the Silk Road Hotel. It's an open courtyard concept well done, as you can see below. The room was great, with full amenities and air conditioning. The dome of Bogheh-ye Seyed Roknaddin is visble right outside the hotel.

On the way from Esfahan to Yazd, a man on the highway was desperately trying to take my picture. As I rode by, a slew of cars was lined up behind two police cars and I realized I had just gone through a speed trap. One with a laser on a tripod, no less. It was the first enforcement I'd seen since Turkey and over time, I had assimilated with the locals. Only red lights were mostly obeyed. The rest, well...  Highways are different, as I prefer to cruise around 95 km/h and was well clear of the 110 limit.

Yazd's main appeal is getting lost in the old city, which I did on a number of occasions. Most if not all of the old mud brick buildings are still inhabited and as such this is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the Middle East. A big contributing factor is the extensive network of underground canals built over the centuries.

A distinct feature of Yazd are the wind towers. They catch the slightest breeze of wind and direct it down to the rooms below. The air is cooled over a surface of water, creating natural air conditioning. The ones on the right were on an ruin on the edge of the city.

The traditional houses of Kashan are many magnitudes more impressive than the ones here. Still, they are special and worth a visit.

Every city has an Imam Khomeini square and a Jameh mosque. This one was much more elaborate than the one in Esfahan. I took a night shot as well from the roof of the hotel the night before.

The mosaic quality and detail on the Jameh mosque was amazing.

Porous water jugs can be found everywhere in Yazd. They are not watertight and sweat a bit when full, allowing for evaporation and cooling of the liquid inside. This one has mini-wind towers for decoration.

On the last night in Yazd, I ended up talking with a young German couple who a few years prior hatched the plan to ride horses from Mongolia to Germany. The first year they rode around Mongolia and covered 8,000 kilometers, only to be stopped at the Chinese border because they were not allowed in with the horses. The following year, they bought horses in China and continued. Now they were taking a break in Iran, after having crossed most of Afghanistan. Both are photographers and during the winters give slide show presentations in Germany. The next show, "Afghanistan" has pictures of people and landscapes like I have never seen before.