Yazd, Iran.
August 2012.
The adventure continues here in Iran. I left Mashhad with such a positive first impression of this vastly misunderstood country. I have now discovered here in Yazd, it ain't just Mashhad that was special, the people all over this country are incredible.
When I arrived in Yazd, I stayed at the Silk Road Hotel. This place is literally the backpacker Mecca for south central Iran. I met Europeans from Spain, Ireland, Italy, Germany, even Lithuania. It was a vastly different crowd than I expected, and all these people were just beyond excited to be here in Iran. Most of these other travelers had come to Iran via Turkey or Armenia, and some from Central Asia. I was the only one to come the other land route from Afghanistan, so we swapped stories and traded ideas and places to stay.
I met many people who were "couch surfing" in Iran. Now couch surfing is a great way to travel, I have done it in Europe before and it is an excellent avenue to get local information and guidance and usually make some great friends in the process, and I have hosted people from overseas in Calgary before. I have never used this site in the developing world, for various reasons, but all these other Europeans informed me that Persians due to the increasing sanctions placed on them are all the more ecstatic about hosting foreigners. They are keen to learn, and I managed to meet up with a number of Persian couch surfers, thanks largely in part to my good friend Fabrizio, from Italia.
For those of you interested in couch surfing in Iran, check out this site:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/
Regardless. Yazd is a special place and when I was making my plans for visiting Iran, a recurring thought kept popping into my head, the three wise men of the bible are said to be from Iran...... I NEED to find where they are from. Now I played one of the three wise men in our school play back in the 4th grade, and ever since then I have had a fascination for understanding more about these mysterious men than crossed half the known world to see our lord and savior be born in the most humble of places. I visited Bethlehem last year and right there staring at the art work of the nativity scene I kept contemplating the fact that these men went on foot and by camel all the way from IRAN! I dream of being able to make that journey myself, hopefully Iraq and Syria will one day stabilize and I may be able to pull it off.
The three wise men, are said to have been Zoroastrian priests, also called the "Magi", and were known in the ancient world to be the wisest of the wise, and made huge inroads in the fields of science, mathematics, astronomy and engineering. Yazd is the city where the Zoroastrian fire temple still stands, and the same flame has been burning for thousands of years. So I felt that going to visit this temple is a phenomenal way to connect with something that the three wise men took part in and helped create, the eternal flame of Zoroaster.
I visited this temple on my first day in Yazd, and explored around the old city. It has a very ancient feel in the old town, but the modern Yazd has all the amenities of Mashhad, with a bit more of a small town charm. A fantastic city indeed.
A brief background about Zoroastrians. Zoroastrians are said to be the first monotheistic faith in the world. The religion was coined by the man Zoroaster, who is from modern day Afghanistan. As I mentioned in the Afghan Posts, I visited his birth place just outside Mazar-e-Sharif eariler on this journey. Zoroastrianism was the faith of the ancient Persian kings, and the religion of Persian until the Arab conquests in the 7th century, which brought Islam to Iran. There faith worships one god called, whom they call, Ahura Mazda.
As I have discovered in Iran, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians are all legal religions in Iran, and have representation in the countries parliament. The city of Yazd, although very conservative houses a large population of all these faiths. I also discovered that the Israeli Minister of defense, Ehud Barak is apparently from here(common knowledge to all the locals, but definitely new news to me). It is fascinating what one can learn in Iran.
I made a few new friends in Yazd, Henry, Patrick and Brian from Ireland, Lucia from Spain and Fabrizio from Italy. We went on a guided tour to Chak Chak, another Zoroastrian pilgrimage site around Yazd and visited a desert village and some of the numerous ancient Persian forts that surround the city. It was a very cool experience. But the high light of the experience was that our tour guide invited us out to meet her friends.
We went to a hookah bar, met up with her husband, his friends and a whole host of other persians. Since she could speak English very well, she translated to all those we met, and they were thrilled to meet some foreigners and by no means felt threatened or disturbed by us visiting Iran. Weird, as I always am told by our media that Persians are evil and want to blow the world up..... hmmmmm, puzzling indeed. Our media really needs to start differentiating between the governments of countries and their people.
We also discovered that Persians tend to bend the rules a little bit. After the hookah bar we were invited to play volleyball in a park in the middle of the night. This has to have been one of the high lights for my trip so far, as in Iran, technically playing mixed sex sports is Illegal. But we played anyways openly in public, and had quite an audience gather to watch the foreigners play against the Persians. All in to much fun! What a great city.
Henry, Fabs and I dined nightly on fantastic Persian food at the guest house, but I have to mention that Persians have an acute love for Pizza and Burgers. Who would have thought? And ketchup is a staple for both those meals, I mean it, Pizza + Ketchup equals success in Iran. Also Persians LOVE ice cream and one cannot walk more than a couple blocks without seeing an modern ice cream shop. There is no Baskin Robbins or dairy queen due to the sanctions, but these guys know how to hit the spot on a hot summers day.
So as we close out Yazd and head to Shiraz tomorrow I have to say, I am discovering more and more that Iran is NOTHING like what we are told back home. I can only imagine the discoveries that await me as I continue to venture through this ancient land.
Next up SHIRAZ and the mighty Persepolis!
Cheers to all in Yazd.
Sincerely,
William Delaney.
 |
| Grand Mosque, old town Yazd. |
August 2012.
The adventure continues here in Iran. I left Mashhad with such a positive first impression of this vastly misunderstood country. I have now discovered here in Yazd, it ain't just Mashhad that was special, the people all over this country are incredible.
When I arrived in Yazd, I stayed at the Silk Road Hotel. This place is literally the backpacker Mecca for south central Iran. I met Europeans from Spain, Ireland, Italy, Germany, even Lithuania. It was a vastly different crowd than I expected, and all these people were just beyond excited to be here in Iran. Most of these other travelers had come to Iran via Turkey or Armenia, and some from Central Asia. I was the only one to come the other land route from Afghanistan, so we swapped stories and traded ideas and places to stay.
 |
| Zoroastrian Fire Temple. The ancient home of the Three Wise Men. |
I met many people who were "couch surfing" in Iran. Now couch surfing is a great way to travel, I have done it in Europe before and it is an excellent avenue to get local information and guidance and usually make some great friends in the process, and I have hosted people from overseas in Calgary before. I have never used this site in the developing world, for various reasons, but all these other Europeans informed me that Persians due to the increasing sanctions placed on them are all the more ecstatic about hosting foreigners. They are keen to learn, and I managed to meet up with a number of Persian couch surfers, thanks largely in part to my good friend Fabrizio, from Italia.
 |
| Inside the fire temple. |
For those of you interested in couch surfing in Iran, check out this site:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/
Regardless. Yazd is a special place and when I was making my plans for visiting Iran, a recurring thought kept popping into my head, the three wise men of the bible are said to be from Iran...... I NEED to find where they are from. Now I played one of the three wise men in our school play back in the 4th grade, and ever since then I have had a fascination for understanding more about these mysterious men than crossed half the known world to see our lord and savior be born in the most humble of places. I visited Bethlehem last year and right there staring at the art work of the nativity scene I kept contemplating the fact that these men went on foot and by camel all the way from IRAN! I dream of being able to make that journey myself, hopefully Iraq and Syria will one day stabilize and I may be able to pull it off.
 |
| Playing Volleyball in the middle of the night. |
The three wise men, are said to have been Zoroastrian priests, also called the "Magi", and were known in the ancient world to be the wisest of the wise, and made huge inroads in the fields of science, mathematics, astronomy and engineering. Yazd is the city where the Zoroastrian fire temple still stands, and the same flame has been burning for thousands of years. So I felt that going to visit this temple is a phenomenal way to connect with something that the three wise men took part in and helped create, the eternal flame of Zoroaster.
 |
| Henry at one of the desert villages. |
I visited this temple on my first day in Yazd, and explored around the old city. It has a very ancient feel in the old town, but the modern Yazd has all the amenities of Mashhad, with a bit more of a small town charm. A fantastic city indeed.
 |
| Patrick, Brian and Lucia. |
As I have discovered in Iran, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians are all legal religions in Iran, and have representation in the countries parliament. The city of Yazd, although very conservative houses a large population of all these faiths. I also discovered that the Israeli Minister of defense, Ehud Barak is apparently from here(common knowledge to all the locals, but definitely new news to me). It is fascinating what one can learn in Iran.
 |
| Chak Chak, Zoroastrian holy site. |
I made a few new friends in Yazd, Henry, Patrick and Brian from Ireland, Lucia from Spain and Fabrizio from Italy. We went on a guided tour to Chak Chak, another Zoroastrian pilgrimage site around Yazd and visited a desert village and some of the numerous ancient Persian forts that surround the city. It was a very cool experience. But the high light of the experience was that our tour guide invited us out to meet her friends.
 |
| Learning how to make a Persian Carpet in Yazd. |
We went to a hookah bar, met up with her husband, his friends and a whole host of other persians. Since she could speak English very well, she translated to all those we met, and they were thrilled to meet some foreigners and by no means felt threatened or disturbed by us visiting Iran. Weird, as I always am told by our media that Persians are evil and want to blow the world up..... hmmmmm, puzzling indeed. Our media really needs to start differentiating between the governments of countries and their people.
We also discovered that Persians tend to bend the rules a little bit. After the hookah bar we were invited to play volleyball in a park in the middle of the night. This has to have been one of the high lights for my trip so far, as in Iran, technically playing mixed sex sports is Illegal. But we played anyways openly in public, and had quite an audience gather to watch the foreigners play against the Persians. All in to much fun! What a great city.
Henry, Fabs and I dined nightly on fantastic Persian food at the guest house, but I have to mention that Persians have an acute love for Pizza and Burgers. Who would have thought? And ketchup is a staple for both those meals, I mean it, Pizza + Ketchup equals success in Iran. Also Persians LOVE ice cream and one cannot walk more than a couple blocks without seeing an modern ice cream shop. There is no Baskin Robbins or dairy queen due to the sanctions, but these guys know how to hit the spot on a hot summers day.
So as we close out Yazd and head to Shiraz tomorrow I have to say, I am discovering more and more that Iran is NOTHING like what we are told back home. I can only imagine the discoveries that await me as I continue to venture through this ancient land.
Next up SHIRAZ and the mighty Persepolis!
Cheers to all in Yazd.
Sincerely,
William Delaney.
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