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Yazd

Amir Chakhmaq Complex

Dowlat-Abad Garden

Yazd Jāme Mosque

Yazd Bahram Fire Temple

Shesh Badgiri Reservoir Water

Alexander’s Prison (Ziyaiyeh School)

Zurkhaneh Saheb al-Zaman

MEYBOD CITY

Meybod Ice-House (Fridge)

Agha-Zadeh Mansion

Chapar-Khaneh Museum

Kaboutar-Khaneh (Pigeon’s Tower)

Abar-Kouh Ice-House

Pahlavan-Pour Garden

Yazd Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran and located in the heart of the country. Its administrative center is the city of Yazd. The province has an area of 131,575 km². The city of Yazd is the economic and administrative center of the province and therefore the most populated.

Amir Chakhmaq Complex

The Amir Chakhmaq Complex is a prominent structure in Yazd, Iran, noted for its symmetrical sunken alcoves. It is a mosque located on a square of the same name. It also contains a caravanserai, a tekiyeh, a bathhouse, a cold water well, and a confectionery. At night, the building is lit up after sun set with orange lighting in the arched alcoves which makes it spectacular. During the Iran–Iraq war and United States war against Iraq and Afghanistan, many Iraqis and Afghanis have come to inhabit the Amir Chakhmaq Square.

Dowlat-Abad Garden

Dowlat-Abad Garden located in Yazd, central Iran, is a Persian architecture jewel. Dowlatabad Garden is one of the 9 gardens listed as world heritage sites by UNESCO under the common title of Persian Garden. Similar to other Persian gardens, there are mansions inside the Dowlat-Abad Garden each of which having specific function. These mansions are surrounded by the orchards with fruit trees such as pomegranate and grapes, flowers and pools. To create Dowlat-Abad Garden and to supply its water a 65 km long chain of Qanats (underground water channels) were dug from Mehriz to Yazd. This garden was created in the mid-18th century for the Karim Khan Zand, then the King of Iran. It is also famous for having the tallest badgir (wind catcher) in Iran with 34 m height. After visiting other highlights of this desert city, having a pleasing evening time in this superb garden is an ideal choice.

Yazd Jāme Mosque

The Jāme Mosque of Yazd (Masjid Jāme Yazd) is the grand, Great Mosque (Jāme) of Yazd city, within the Yazd Province of Iran. The mosque is depicted on the obverse of the Iranian 200 Rials banknote. The 12th-century mosque is still in use today. It was first built under Ala’oddoleh Garshasb of the Al-e Bouyeh dynasty. The mosque was largely rebuilt between 1324 and 1365, and is one of the outstanding 14th century buildings of Iran. According to the historians, the mosque was constructed in the site of the Sassanid fire temple. The previous mosque was constructed in 12th century, however the main construction of the present building was done by order of “Seyyed Rokn Al-din Mohammad Qāzi”.

Yazd Bahram Fire Temple

The Yazd Atash Bahrām, also known as Yazd Atashkadeh, is a temple in Yazd, to the west of Shirāz in Iran. It was built in 1934 and enshrines the Atash Bahram, meaning “Fire of Victory”, dated to 470. It is one of the nine Atash Bahrāms, the only one of the highest grade fire in Iran where Zoroastrians have practiced their religion since 400 BC; the other eight Atash Bahrāms are in India. According to Aga Rustam Noshiravan Belivani, of Sharifabad, the Anjuman-e Nasiri (elected Zoroastrian officials) opened the Yazd Atash Bahrām in the 1960s to non-Zoroastrian visitors. A fire temple in Zoroastrianism is the place of worship for Zoroastrians, often called Dar-e Mehr (Persian) or agiyari (Gujarati). In the Zoroastrian religion, fire, together with clean water, is agents of ritual purity. Clean, white ash for the purification ceremonies is regarded as the basis of ritual life, which is essentially the rites proper to the tending of a domestic fire, for the temple [fire] is that of the hearth fire raised to a new solemnity.

Shesh Badgiri Reservoir Water

This monument was built 180 years ago in Qajar period and reconstructed in 1952. This water reservoir, which is the most beautiful water reservoir in Yazd, was constructed by Haji Hossein Mirollah.

Alexander’s Prison (Ziyaiyeh School)

Alexander’s Prison with about 8 centuries of historical background is located beside Davazdah Imams Shrine in Fahadan District in Yazd. This monument was established in 1428 by the famous scholar, Zia al-Din Hossein Reza and was completed in 1500 by his sons, Majd al-Din Hasan and Sharaf al-Din Ali. There are some narratives about this building.

Zurkhaneh Saheb al-Zaman

Zurkhaneh-yi sports are another name for Iranian traditional sports. The place where Iranian do traditional sports is called a Zurkhaneh (traditional gym). Apart from traditional sports, athletic wrestling is also done in Zurkhaneh. Athletic wrestling and Zurkhaneh traditions were registered in UNESCO list of spiritual heritage on November 16, 2010. Saheb al-Zaman Zurkhaneh is the greatest zurkhaneh in Yazd Province.

MEYBOD CITY

Meybod is a city in Yazd province. This city has a few thousand years of history. Meybod city is considered to be the second urban and commercial center of Yazd province and due to its valuable historical structure; most of the city has been registered on the list of Iran’s historical monuments. It’s also worth mentioning that Jahan-Abād town is also one of the major industrial centers of this city, and by producing half of the tiles and ceramics of the country, this county, is also considered as the main production center of these products.

Meybod Ice-House (Fridge)

The fridge with a history that goes back to the time before Qajar period is one of the few fridges remaining in Yazd Province that is made of adobe and mud. The main parts of this elegant monument include shadow-caster walls, ice pond, fridge tank and a dome. The nearest tourist attractions to the Ice-House are Kolarwater reservoir, Abbasi Caravanserai and MeybodChapar-Khaneh.

Agha-Zadeh Mansion

Agha-Zadeh Mansion and its wind-catcher is related to Qajar era and located on Abar-Kouh, Darvazeh District, Abarghu Square. The owner of the mansion was Seyyed Hossein Abarghuyi, one of the wealthy people in Abar-Kouh. Its area is 820 square meters. Cashes with value of 20 thousand Rials were distributed in Iran with a design of this historical mansion on since 2014.

Chapar-Khaneh Museum

Chapar-Khaneh of Meybod dates back to Qajar era. It has been one of the major post offices and chapars in the past that was established on the ancient Rey- Kermān Road and beside Meybod Inn. Chapar- Khaneh duty was to keep and treat a few fresh horses and messengers to quickly sent and transfer important letters and trust properties. Hence, chaparkhanehs were built in the form of castles so that they can be protected and this importance can be clearly seen in its high towers and walls and the holes for watching, shooting and its appropriate defense position.

Kaboutar-Khaneh (Pigeon’s Tower)

Pigeon tower of Meybod has 4000 pigeon nests, whose brick and gypsum’s architecture prevent the snakes from reaching and hunting migratory birds. This pigeon tower is made of cylindrical and decorated with brick and gypsum. The pigeon tower made of 20 to 20 cm cavities, each of which is a nest of pigeons. Four turrets and a middle tower on the roof were in the direction of the entering and exit of the pigeons, and the sharp color of the Moqarnas structures is the main reason for attracting the birds. This exterior is a circular raft with special reliefs and from interior contains a hexagonal arch. It also has three floors and is equipped with thousands of nests for attracting and keeping migratory birds. This tower has a hexagonal dome covering around it, which is decorated with gypsum. The interiors of these types of pigeon houses sometimes have embodied more than 25,000 pigeons.

Abar-Kouh Ice-House

Abar-Kouh has 4 ice houses which date back to Qajar dynasty. Adobe Ice-Houses (Yakhchal) are ancient buildings used to store ice and food throughout the year, commonly used prior to the invention of the refrigerator in the past. Ice collected during the winter and properly insulated (usually with straw) could be stored inside ice-houses throughout the year. In Iran, ice houses consisted of a large hole dug in the ground, and covered with an adobe structure. They ensured a sufficient supply of ice during the torrid Persian summer months. Persian engineers had mastered the technique of storing ice in the middle of summer in the desert. The structure is made out of a special mortar, composed of sand, clay, egg whites, lime, goat hair, and ash in specific proportions.

Pahlavan-Pour Garden

The historical Pahlavan-Pour Garden is located in Mazvir Abad District in Shahid Zarein town. The building was built in the late Qajar period. The two gardens of Dowlat Abad and Pahlavan-Pour along with 7 other Iranian gardens were agreed to be registered in the list of world heritage in the thirty fifth meeting of World Heritage Committee. Pahlavan-Pour Garden in Mahriz is rare in its kind in the whole area and belonged to one of the businessmen in Yazd called Ali Pahlavan-Pour. Zemestan Khaneh-Mansion is in the western side of the garden, Sharbat-Khaneh Mansion in the central part, service parts (stalls, storehouses, janitor house, etc.) and spinning workshop and carpet weaving is in the southern side. The most invaluable section of the garden is Kushak Mansion or Sharbat Khaneh in three floors. Kushak Summerhouse is highly decorated and is considered the most precious part of Sharbat Khaneh Building.