this morning we had a short drive over the river to the julfa district of the city where the Armenians came in the early 1600's,the 33 arch bridge connects them to the original city. here they built their cathedral. the building looks like a mosque apart from the cross on top of the dome. the interior is a sight to behold. every bit of space has frescoes of stories from the bible in big bold colours. a museum on site contains some fascinating Armenian religious and community artefacts. it's prize possessions include: the world's smallest book and the smallest bit of writing. driving further out of town we came to the shaking minarets,a monument built over the tomb of a 13th century mystic. atop are two minarets and periodically a man pushes against one of them causing the other minaret to shake as well. a bell on both of the minarets ring out.
a drive back into town to visit the first Friday mosque of the city . the road goes underground so buses can park easily and you ascend to the ground floor via an escalator. what you see is part of the bazaar but as you go through an unassuming gate you find yourself in the largest mosque in the Islamic world dating back to the early days of Islam. in fact the first mosque was pointing in the wrong direction and contained a Mithras fire pit,traces of which can still be seen as well as war damage from the Iran/Iraq war. all the various Iranian dynasties since the beginning of Islam have added their particular kind of architecture. in particular it led the way during the Iranian Renaissance when the Iranians (Persians) began their cultural drift and rule from Arabia due also in part to a short lived invasion from Mongols. for lunch some of us went to a restaurant round the corner to sample what is claimed to be the best walnut stew in Iran. the non beer was served in pint mugs with a straw so proper sophisticated like!
in the evening a few of us walked to the luxury hotel in the old caravanserais for our most expensive meal of our trip (£15 p/h ). we ate in a vast perfumed garden with Iranian musicians serenading us. the non beer was imported from the Netherlands and tasted vaguely of beer. yay!