Tehran............

Arrived a few hours ago after driving over desert and desert and yet more desert.  But am writing this to say that I completely forgot about the Towers of Silence in Yadz.  Iran's biggest Zoarastrian community live in Yadz and just on the edge of the town are two Towers of Silence built up on hillsides. Squat round towers covering the whole of the top of the hills on which they are situated.  These are the towers where the Zoarastrians used to place their dead so that the bodies could be eaten by vultures.  They have not been used as such for quite a long time but climbing up to one of the towers was an awesome experience.  Thinking about how they were used and the many people who had died and used that method of body disposal so as not to pollute either the earth by burial or the sky by cremation.   I was lucky enough to spend quite a long time up there on my own as everybody else opted to climb the higher of the 2 towers whereas I went up the further but neither so steep or so high one.  It certainly was a moment for quiet reflection.

Shiraz (of the grapes - the vinyards now only produce grapes for eating or vinagre) - stayed in a very interesting hotel.  It was a former traditional home for a very wealthy family - we met several lots of architectural students who come to look at it.  The rooms were all around a courtyard with a central pool and a garden on either side of the pool with roses and other plants.  The steps up to all the rooms were very steep.  This appears to be a feature of this part of the world.  I call them "bloody Ottoman steps" as I first came across them in Turkey.   I have visions of all these middle ages Turks, Persians, etc. all having severe arthritis of the knees because they are so steep!  I saw a couple of museums in Shiraz and spent time looking around the Bazaar.  This is how I had a pen bought for me as a gift by a very kind woman in a gift shop in the Bazaar.  I would never have found the shop selling fountain pens so she took me there and bought me the pen as a present.  Through her I also met a potter who explained something about the beautiful colours of the tiles on the Mosques.  I had been confused as I had been told that the colours were vegetable but the potter confirmed that in fact they are earth or mineral pigments as one would expect.

Esfahan -  seems so long ago now - but a city of culture and craft and the most beautiful mosque I have seen to date. 
PS. Archie is now working like a dream as s/he had a complete overhaul in Esfahan!