Yazd, Zoroastrianism and Did Ramazan Start?

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We have included in this entry a map where you can see our journey of the first 19 days in Iran. Just click on the map to the left.

Yazd

Although we are on one of the different branches of the Silk Road since we reached Central Anatolia in Turkey we have not yet written a lot about it. Not only Silvan and Annamaria traveled to Yazd but also the probably best known Silk Road traveler: Marco Polo. He passed Yazd in the 13th century and described the city as "a very fine and splendid city and a center of commerce". Marco Polo was much more a traveler than a merchant. Only travelers with a sense of adventure (700 years ago, not necessary anymore today) traveled the whole Silk Road from Europe to China and eventually back if they did not die before. The merchants with their goods only did small parts of the road. They moved with camels and horses in a caravan able to do 25-35 kilometers per day. Each night they stayed at a caravanserai, which served as hotel for men and animals but also as market place for the goods brought from far. These caravanserais are one of the few things of the Silk Road still visible today. Many have been destroyed or only ruins remain, but many have been restored and are used as part of the bazaar, as hotels, restaurants, museums, etc.

Yazd is a city set in the middle of the desert. Around Yazd there is not much land suitable for agriculture, however there are mountains that provide Yazd with enough water and wind. A particularity of this city is that it has a an old city. All cities visited so far do have old buildings but in Yazd it is an entire small city that has been preserved. The Mongols who destroyed many cities on their way did not traverse Yazd protected by the desert. The old city is a labyrinth of small, sun dried mud brick houses that are still inhabited. In this town, we found by far the best accommodation in Iran and it is not probably that it will be topped... there are a few hotels set up in renovated old buildings around courtyards and pools. Really nice and extremely relaxing. It is not so surprising that for the first time in 1,5 months we made friends with foreign travelers here. From time to time it is refreshing to have a conversation in French and English not treating of "How do you like Turkey/Iran?". We greatly appreciated the atmosphere.

Zoroastrianism

On our desert trip we learned a lot about Zoroastrianism. As you may know, the Persian people have not always been Muslim and a lot of them still not consider themselves as Muslim (although they cannot say it in public). The last blog entry was about Persepolis and the Achaemenid empire who built it. During the Achaemenid period, Zoroastrianism became the state religion in Persia and still today you can meet Persians admitting that they are not really Muslim but rather Zoroastrians. We visited what is believed to be the most important site of pilgrimage for these people. It is called Chak Chak and it is set up far from civilization in the mountains of the desert (to hide from Arabic invasion AD 637). The temple itself is not really impressive or beautiful. It is much more for the history and the histories of the people that you come to this place as a non-Zoroastrian. This may be another piece that makes Iran not a typical Muslim country (if something like that exists...).

Those who want to know more about this religion can read the following exhaustive Wikipedia article. At a first glance it looks quite complete, but we are not experts...

Zoroastrianism on Wikipedia

On the other hand, of course, there are very religious Muslims as well and if you like to believe Iranian statistics 99% of the population is Muslim. A 16-years old girls told that her goal after school is to join the religious police! But what really seeps through is that Iranians are living two parallel worlds. One outside their home where very few freedom exists and one in their homes where they can enjoy much more freedom. This may be true for all nations, but we think that it the gap between these two worlds may be more important here than in other parts of the world...

Ramazan

For our last 2 weeks in Iran, we have the opportunity to live a very important moment in Muslims life: the Ramazan. Actually, we were a bit confused about the beginning of this month of fast, because the first day was... "doubt day"! In fact, people explained us that nobody was sure whether it was really beginning this day or the next one! Anyway, during this period, people are supposed to fast from dawn to dusk (they can't even smoke nor drink water and the most rigorous don't even wash their teeth, because they could swallow the water!). This ritual is meant to clean the body and the mind. In principle, it's imposed to everyone in Iran, but tourists (including Muslim tourist from Iran or outside) can still eat and drink in closed places. Also, some locals confessed us they were eating in their houses. We shared a picnic with a tourist guide in a public park at noon, having the excuse that he is traveling with us.

For the moment, we didn't have any problems, as most of the hotel restaurants offer breakfast and sometimes lunch. There are also some day-open restaurants which simply cover their windows with curtains. For the evening, it's not a problem, as dusk is around 6:30 pm. However, during the day, we have always to remember not to eat or drink in public, which is really not polite for those who must wait until dusk!! At the end of the afternoon, we could observe the bakeries baking huge amounts of bread and people going home with provisions of food for the evening which could last at least one month! At dusk, public spaces empty themselves, as most of the people have banquets in family at home. But we could also observe some families having picnics in parks. They had all prepared just before dusk and were all waiting, ready to eat as soon as they heard the prayer diffused from the minarets around!

By the way, we didn't tell you about Iranian food. People had told us that, although Iranian food is very tasty and diversified, most restaurants serve only kebabs. It was mostly true in the less touristic places. But restaurants in bigger cities offer some very tasty plates, mixing for example meat and nuts, dates or pomegranates, as well as different delicious meals with aubergine. In Yazd, we could even eat camel meat! They also sell delicious fresh fruit juices, very refreshing when you walk through the city the whole day long! Iranian drink also a lot of tea (but not as much as the Turks, at least in public), sometimes with cardamon or cinnamon or even saffron. They don't put sugar in the cup, they put it directly in the mouth and that is where it gets mixed with the tea! Mysteriously, they manage to keep the sugar in the mouth for some swallows! We tried, but the sugar didn't last more than a second!!

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