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From Eqlid we drove North to Abarqu, which is most famous for a Cypress tree. Called the Zoroastrian Sarv it is protected by the Cultural Heritage of Iran as a national monument as it is believed to be over 4,000 years old and maybe the oldest living thing in Asia. It's big, has green leaves and a trunk - it's a tree in a field. I really don't know what else to say!
From the tree we walked through the city, which is believed to be over 3,000 years old. As a desert city the buildings are set within a maze of lanes and alleyways with high walls. The walls keep the alleyways shaded in Summer and protect from the high winds in winter. We visited a house, which was built approximately 200 years ago. It has an ingenious air conditioning system, which was essentially a tower built on one side of the house. Inside the tower were some shutters, which could be opened to let in the cool air. These shutters would then direct the cooling breeze through into the home - genius.
Something else that was genius was the cities ice tower. This particular tower is 200 years old but there are many across the country. Some as old as 900 years. These huge domed towers, standing up to 30 metres in height, were built in such a way that during the winter months the residents of the city would collect the water and freeze it into blocks. They would use grass to separate the blocks and then place in the ice tower. Then in the summer months when there was no snow or rain they had a plentiful supply of water. I was really amazed by the forward thinking of the Persians and their many feats of engineering.
After another amazing lunch we headed further into the desert to the Caravanserai at Zein O Din. Built over 400 years ago it was part of a network of 999 hostels built in Iran to house the many travellers and traders who were navigating the Silk Road. Located in the middle of the desert it looks like a small fortress from the outside. Once inside you find rooms raised above the ground so that the merchants could unload their camels without having to bend down! Each room has a simple mattress on top of carpets with just a curtain separating you from the other occupants. It was our drivers birthday the night we stayed at the Caravanserai so after an evening meal of Camel stew, Aubergine stew, vegetable stew, chicken and rice we headed to our own private room. Here we played traditional Iranian music and danced, very badly, to the music. We then watched our driver and one of the employees show us how it should be done - it's not as easy as it looks! We were soon joined by other guests of the hotel and it turned in to a real party.
The Caravanserai's location means that at night the starry sky is incredibly clear. At 11pm we all headed up on to the roof for some star gazing. Carpets were laid out and we lay on our backs staring at the most beautiful array of stars.
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