Yazd

On the road

The fellow in the green turban joined our bus on the way, so he sat on the floor up front. The first photo of us showed how much taller I was; so for this one, I squatted.

Silk Road Hotel

We were staying at Orient Hotel, but the nearby Silk Road had working wireless internet, and a better menu. (The ownership was the same.)

Friday Mosque

The hotels were nearby.

Amir Chakhmaq

This structure is apparently called a Tekyeh; Lonely Planet calls it a Hosseiniyeh. Apparently it is for the ritual mourning of Hussein ibn Ali.

Orient Hotel

Thursday morning.

Zoroastrian fire temple

Ayşe and I walked to this on Thursday morning.

Ab anbar

We saw this water reservoir signposted on the way back, but still had trouble finding it and getting in; a little boy knocked on a door for us, and the caretaker showed us around. The towers are badgirs, apparently meant to cool the water under the dome. However, the reservoir was dry. There was a shrine in the same compound, but the connection to the reservoir was not clear.

Back streets

Friday Mosque

Afternoon tour

There were various houses one could visit—Lonely Planet had a walking route—but just wandering these streets seemed to be sufficient amusement. (We visited the roof of a hotel, on somebody's recommendation.)

Tehran

Thursday night the four of us took a bus to Tehran.

Old American Embassy

Our hotel (called Atlas) turned out to be on the same street as the old US embassy. The staff there had been taken hostage when I was in school. I did not know then that the 1953 coup had supposedly been orchestrated from the embassy basement.

Golestan palace complex

National Museum

Reza Abbasi Museum

Glassware and Ceramics Museum

The museum seems to have no Wikipedia article, but has its own website.

Tehran Bazaar

At intersection by old US Embassy

The bookshop next to the old embassy seemed to sell works of interests to the followers of Khomeini; but they had also a Persian translation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason on display. On the opposite corner was a Greek church.

Iran: beginning