yadz is the spiritual home of Zoroastrianism,a pre Islamic religion that exists today and due to being a monotheistic religion was allowed in Persia but suppressed by the Arabs who considered them fire worshippers. indeed some of the early Islamic Shia mosque mosaics contain references to them,the sun and the stars.
our first call was to the ancient sky burial sites,the towers of silence . just outside the city where the desert starts. 2 towers have been built on hills where the bodies are left for the vultures after a few days mourning in purpose built buildings below. a supply of water from the mountains was available by tapping into the city supply through a well head on site. the water was kept fresh by the use of wind towers like in Dubai. there were many more in the old city of Yadz that we saw later. we then went to the main mourning place where the Shia Muslims went to mourn the death of important people. the 14th century tiling was magnificent and depicted plants and real objects including spelling out the name of Allah. this is one of the differences between Shia and Sunni. next to this is a giant babies cradle which symbolises part of the causes of the schism. the mosque in the same complex was equally impressive with more fantastical tiling . a visit to one of the finest confectioners in Iran followed and we went to a traditional restaurant and again had a local delicacy,a dizi,a chick pea,tomato and meat stew that you bash with a pestle and eat in bread with pickle and dried bread soaked in the stew broth.
we then went to the Friday mosque from which we walked through the old mud walled city. they are hoping to have the city recognised as a unesco site and be then able to restore and renovate the buildings which are slowly collapsing. some buildings are over a 1000 years old. we visited a shrine where the ladies gather upon the grave of an important person,another difference between Sunni and Shia. we ventured onto a roof to get a birds eye of the city and the desert behind before finding a bakery making the local bread in an tandoor style oven. all the time we were walking around the local women would come up and chat to the women in our party and thank us for visiting.