First of all, thanks Mary for the comment about Leonard Skinner. Funnily enough they did report it on Radio Esfahan - right after the commercials for Spearmint Rhino and Smirnoff.
As I mentioned before, Yazd is a seriously ancient town and in recent years there has been a move to restore many of the wonderful old houses - some have been converted into hotels and some into museums. They all have a similar layout - an open central courtyard, sometimes two, with a central pool and fountain and shady alcoves and rooms around the central area.. Much of the detail of paintwork and decorative features has been restored and trees and plants installed so there is a lovely tranquil atmosphere created.
In one of these was the Yazd Water Museum. This is a very arid area so the provision of water to the city has been a continuous problem over the centuries. They resolve it by a series of underground channels - called Qanats - which are constructed to conduct water by gravity from sources outside the city. The museum showed how these are made - there are still very skilled and experienced qanat-builders working. The channels are tiny - not much more that the minimum needed for a man to move along on his hands and knees. And they feed both reservoirs and individual homes. Many houses have steep steps down to the qanat as it passes beneath - and they generally have dug out quite a large space around it - enough for seating areas as it is many degrees cooler down there. The qanat builders wear an all white costume and hat - apparently because it can symbolise a shroud for them if there is a cave-in while they are working underground........
Yazd is one of the main remaining centres of Zoroastrianism and there are two principal sites to see in the city. One, which is visted by Zoroastrians from all over the world, is a "sacred eternal flame' which is housed behind a large glass screen in a special building. We were expecting some kind of small symbolic flame, but it turned out to be a large log fire. It is claimed that the fire has been burning continuously since at least the 5th century but we were, I'm afraid, a little sceptical. We decided that probably the most important piece of equipment for the man on night duty is a box of matches............
The other site is a little way out of town. It was the Z's custom, until as recently as the 1960's, not to bury their dead but to expose the bodies in a high, remote place to be disposed of by vultures. They built structures called "Towers of Silence" - these were circular walls within which the bodies were left on raised platforms. Outside Yazd there are two - one for men and one for women - on adjacent rocky hills. It is a desolate, barren spot and it was difficult enough for us to scramble up - carrying a body up there must have been quite a task. The views back over the city from the top though were welll worth the effort.
That evening we visted a Zurkaneh - literally a "House of Strength". This was a seriously alien experience.
The entrance was a small unmarked door in a dark alley not too far from our hotel.Inside was a large room with a huge dome and in the centre was a pit about a metre deep and 5/6 metres across - all tiled.
Around this were set out chairs for spectators and a large pulpit affair in which sat a man with a big hand drum and various bells and a microphone.
In the pit were a motley assortment of participants who went through various synchronised exercise routines while the man in the pulpit set the tempo with complex drumming, punctuated by bell notes, and loud singing - which sounded very traditional - and possibly semi-religious. As I said - very wierd.
There was close co-ordination betwen the drummer and the exercise leader in the pit - and it all seemed to be ritualised, with various call and responses between the leader and the rest of the participants. And the cognoscenti among the spectators also joined in with this.
The exercises began with complicated pressup routines - all sychronised - and went on to individual whirling in the centre with each man whirling for as long as he could. Each one performed some kind of skipping routine around the edge as a kind of build up to his turn. They then went on to a routine involving twirling very heavy clubs and some of them manipulated some kind of heavy metal apparatus with chains and cymbal bells attached.
As I said, very strange - but fascinating to watch.
I read somewhere that there are quite a few of these places in Teheran and, because of their decidedly traditional and conservative nature, they were ideal sources of reliable hard men whenever any unpleasantness was required during the Islamic Revolution.
So - that's Yazd. Very different and very interesting.
As I mentioned before, Yazd is a seriously ancient town and in recent years there has been a move to restore many of the wonderful old houses - some have been converted into hotels and some into museums. They all have a similar layout - an open central courtyard, sometimes two, with a central pool and fountain and shady alcoves and rooms around the central area.. Much of the detail of paintwork and decorative features has been restored and trees and plants installed so there is a lovely tranquil atmosphere created.
In one of these was the Yazd Water Museum. This is a very arid area so the provision of water to the city has been a continuous problem over the centuries. They resolve it by a series of underground channels - called Qanats - which are constructed to conduct water by gravity from sources outside the city. The museum showed how these are made - there are still very skilled and experienced qanat-builders working. The channels are tiny - not much more that the minimum needed for a man to move along on his hands and knees. And they feed both reservoirs and individual homes. Many houses have steep steps down to the qanat as it passes beneath - and they generally have dug out quite a large space around it - enough for seating areas as it is many degrees cooler down there. The qanat builders wear an all white costume and hat - apparently because it can symbolise a shroud for them if there is a cave-in while they are working underground........
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| The surface part of an underground water cistern with its windtowers |
Yazd is one of the main remaining centres of Zoroastrianism and there are two principal sites to see in the city. One, which is visted by Zoroastrians from all over the world, is a "sacred eternal flame' which is housed behind a large glass screen in a special building. We were expecting some kind of small symbolic flame, but it turned out to be a large log fire. It is claimed that the fire has been burning continuously since at least the 5th century but we were, I'm afraid, a little sceptical. We decided that probably the most important piece of equipment for the man on night duty is a box of matches............
The other site is a little way out of town. It was the Z's custom, until as recently as the 1960's, not to bury their dead but to expose the bodies in a high, remote place to be disposed of by vultures. They built structures called "Towers of Silence" - these were circular walls within which the bodies were left on raised platforms. Outside Yazd there are two - one for men and one for women - on adjacent rocky hills. It is a desolate, barren spot and it was difficult enough for us to scramble up - carrying a body up there must have been quite a task. The views back over the city from the top though were welll worth the effort.
That evening we visted a Zurkaneh - literally a "House of Strength". This was a seriously alien experience.
The entrance was a small unmarked door in a dark alley not too far from our hotel.Inside was a large room with a huge dome and in the centre was a pit about a metre deep and 5/6 metres across - all tiled.
Around this were set out chairs for spectators and a large pulpit affair in which sat a man with a big hand drum and various bells and a microphone.
In the pit were a motley assortment of participants who went through various synchronised exercise routines while the man in the pulpit set the tempo with complex drumming, punctuated by bell notes, and loud singing - which sounded very traditional - and possibly semi-religious. As I said - very wierd.
There was close co-ordination betwen the drummer and the exercise leader in the pit - and it all seemed to be ritualised, with various call and responses between the leader and the rest of the participants. And the cognoscenti among the spectators also joined in with this.
The exercises began with complicated pressup routines - all sychronised - and went on to individual whirling in the centre with each man whirling for as long as he could. Each one performed some kind of skipping routine around the edge as a kind of build up to his turn. They then went on to a routine involving twirling very heavy clubs and some of them manipulated some kind of heavy metal apparatus with chains and cymbal bells attached.
As I said, very strange - but fascinating to watch.
I read somewhere that there are quite a few of these places in Teheran and, because of their decidedly traditional and conservative nature, they were ideal sources of reliable hard men whenever any unpleasantness was required during the Islamic Revolution.
So - that's Yazd. Very different and very interesting.
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