Iran: Yazd to Esfahan

This morning we checked out of our hotel and said goodbye to Yazd! We loaded up the van and were off to Esfahan, which has been promised to be the highlight of the trip.

We made a stop for tea at an abandoned 16th century caravanserai along the way, and then stopped at a small artisan town called Naein (pronounced nah-eene). This town in Iran is famous for its hand-woven carpets. In fact, this is the town where one of my carpets I bought last year in Turkey was woven! We did some sightseeing first, stopping at a workshop where traditional woven camel hair garments were made. Since Naein is a desert town, it sometimes gets up to 131F in the summer time. To cope with the heat, many of the workshops were carved down into the rock/earth so that it stays a little cooler.

After visiting the workshop, we stopped at the Jaame Mosque of Naein (Friday Mosque), which is a 9th century Arabic mosque (as opposed to the Persian mosques we have seen up to this point). We learned that the main difference between the two are that Arabic mosques have one minaret which is functional only, whereas a Persian mosque has two mosques which are functional AND decorative. Also to cope with the heat, there is a mosque underneath the main mosque which is used during times of extreme heat.

We continued our tour of Naein by walking through the old deserted bazaar, which used to be thriving even as early as the 12th century. We walked pasted what is called the orange castle, an old governor's house from the 6th century which is now is a state of disrepair.

We walked through the streets of the town and finally went to the restaurant where we had lunch, and afterwards piled back into the van for the rest of the trip to Esfahan. We arrived shorty before dusk and checked in. When we were shown to the room, I was surprised to see that I had a balcony with a gorgeous view of the courtyard which is filled with gardens and fountains.

After a few minutes of getting settled in the room, we were off again to walk to a nearby 16th century bridge to see it illuminated at night. As we were admiring the view, we had some local students come up to us wanting to chat. One was an English literature major and wanted to just chat with us to practice her (excellent) English. After another wonderful cultural exchange, we walked back across the dry riverbed to our side of the "river" where we walked the streets window shopping and then arrived at our restaurant for dinner. I had the delicious local specialty which is boneless chicken breast stewed in walnut and pomegranate paste (I can't tell you how delicious this is) served over saffron rice. SO good!

We then caught a cab back to the hotel because it had started to rain while we were eating dinner. Tomorrow we begin our real exploration of Esfahan, and I can hardly wait!!!