After some breakfast, we headed out to start our day of sightseeing. We started by visiting the 33 arch bridge or the Khajoo Bridge. It has 33 arches, one for every year of Jesus's life. This bridge joined the Christian Armenian quarter of the city to the Islamic part.
Our next stop was to a pigeon tower, where they harvest the bird shit for fertilizer. It must have just been harvested because it was very clean and we climbed to the top to enjoy a nice view of the city.
We drove a short distance to the Armenian quarter to visit a cathedral. There was also a nice museum on site as well. There were several groups of school children visiting and it was nice to know that the Iranians were educating their children in Christianity, even though they are all Muslim.
After the visit to the cathedral and museum, we walked around the Armenian quarter which is called New Julfa. We visited Julfa several days ago, which is the town on the border of Azerbaijan. Way back in the day one If the sultans asked a bunch of them to move to Esfahan and settle in New Julfa, which they did.
We then had a quick bite to eat before it was time to visit the Friday Mosque of Eafahan. It was a huge complex of mosques that date back to the 10th century. Throughout the ages, sections have been added to it, so in one large mosque complex you can see the progression of Islamic/Persian architecture century to century.
We then walked through the old bazaar (dates back to the 11th century) all the way to the "new" bazaar (dating back to the 17th century), with a stop at the Ali minaret. We then walked around the square taking pictures as the sun set and then again after the sun had gone down, wasting the time in between wandering from shop to shop along the square.
We then headed back to the hotel where we had a little down time before dinner. We had a long day and have to get some rest for tomorrow, which is our last full day in Esfahan!
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