Kohan Hotel Yazd

... awash with a truly psychedelic light show.

Yazd is also home to Iran's greatest population of Zoroastrians, followers of a religion that has been around since 1,000 – 1,5000B.C. Like all other non-Muslims living in Iran Zoroastrians are forced to follow the Islamic laws of the country, including the dress code. Zoroastrian women can be distinguished from the rest of the population by their lack of a chador and their patterned headscarves and embroidered white, cream or red dresses.

... mais, avant les derniers jours, un souffle très apprécié. Je ne saurais enfin conclure sur cet épisode sans mentionner quelques superbes rencontres, surtout masculines (quoi que : je m'étais fait embarquer aux côtés d'une charmante iranienne à mon arrivée à Yazd, celle-ci concluant notre bref echange en fârsi par son numéro dans mon ...

... was great. All manner of food was produced as were the much-lauded sherberts. Unlike the alternative group's review the sherberts were awful. Watery, foul tasting (in the case of the mint sherbert) and definitely not to be recommended. Quite how this was a place that would make your visit a night (or day) you would never forget is beyond me. Yes a pleasant, relaxing and peaceful experience but no Shang-ri-la! A sole ...

... to the southern outskirts of Yazd, and the Zoroastrian Towers of Silence. Each tower sits atop its own hilltop with disused buildings at the foot of the hills. The Zoroastrian belief was that if a dead body was buried in the ground it would pollute it, and so as to maintain the purity of the erth dead bodes were left in these stone towers, uncovered so that vultures could pick the bones clean. This practice was carried on as late ...

... a ceremonial centre hosting successive coronations. Although quickly superseded by Persepolis, [and no wonder - again, my note] Pasargade has enchanted [they're really pushing it now - yes, my note] travellers through the ages - including Alexander the Great. [no doubt he said so in the visitor's book - me] Lonely Planet, unlike Explore! hadn't been drinking before they wrote their blurb..."Some travellers have questioned ...

... solemn old men in grey beards. There were Zoroastrian dictates hung about the walls, exhorting people to follow the path of the Good, in accordance with the dictates of Ahura Mazda, the one and only God. It has several elements in common with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions: recognition of one God, a prophet that delivered God's message to the people, a strict moral code, elaborate rituals developed around an institution, and a clerical class that exists in formal proximity ...

... the hotel, we stopped by the Towers of Silence, two giant towers perched on a hill just outside the city. Up until the 1960s, the Zoroastrians would put the dead on top of the towers for the vultures to pick clean, after which the bones were collected and deposited in a specially lined grave. This is because they believe the earth is holy and burial would pollute it. In the 1960s, the government persuaded them to bury their dead in ...

... 7 years. The logical thing to do is to leave Iran, and thousands of the best and brightest do exactly that every year. He got off the bus at Meybod, and invited me to visit him at the university the next day.



The central part of Yazd, where most travellers stay, is a labryinth of tiny alleyways, mudbrick walls, and little squares that connect to even more alleyways and little squares. It was already dark when I arrived in Yazd ...