Zeinodin Caravanserai
Zein-o-din Caravanserai is a unique property designed for the experience of older days in Yazd. The city of Yazd is located to the north of Ardestan, to the south of Taft in the east of Bafq and to the west of Esfahan province. The city of Yazd is located to the north of Ardestan, to the south of Taft in the east of Bafq and to the west of Esfahan province. Yazd is the center of the province and is located 689 kilometer from Tehran. It is located in an extensive valley facing the desert. Consequently, its weather is hot and arid in summer and cold in winter, which are some specifications of the weather of this territory.
Zeinodin caravanserai is one of two rounded caravanserais of Iran built in the 16th century. It is charmingly renovated, tastefully decorated and was given the UNESCO award for best renovated building in 2006. Following the round shaped interior walls of Zeinodin caravanserai, narrow rooms are built on wooden platforms. Some with wooden doors and others with just a thick curtain separating them from the corridor. Thick Persian carpets cover the floors and decorate the walls. A clean, yet thin mattress, pillows and blankets are provided. Everything is delightfully made to evoke the feeling of a Silk Road travel.
Here, in the midst of a vast desert plain flanked by mountains, this 400-year-old brick caravanserai has been restored to accommodate travelers the same way it did when it was active on the trans-Asia trade routes. Well, almost as it did. After a three-year renovation during which 13,000 pumice stones were used to scour centuries of grime from the walls, most spaces look as they would have when this caravanserai was built on the orders of Safavid Shah Abbas the Great. Accommodation is simple: the raised rooms offer mattresses on top of carpets with just a curtain separating you from the corridor. Aside from a couple of added wooden steps, this is exactly the experience the caravan traders would have had. Where it differs is in the stylish and crystal clean communal bathrooms, the service and the food.
There are two types of rooms. Smaller ones inside along the main corridor and other spacious ones opening to the courtyard which come with beds. In the night you head to the rooftop where you could feel the serenity of the desert night and locked your eyes to a sky packed with glistening stars. There is nothing but darkness and a light breeze brushing your cheeks and swaying your hair. Sometimes sounds of the cars and trucks passing the highway would break the silence. It is divine, blissful and indefinable.
Sitting on the legendary Silk Route, surrounded by oases and hot springs, this is a building with history, where gold, ivory and spice traders would hole up and gossip. It has been beautifully restored and is utterly enchanting, unlike anywhere else you have been before. With large wooden doors, vertiginously high ceilings, carpeted brick floors and little wooden ladders up to your raised bed, hidden behind a wall of heavy curtains, it’s Harry Potter-gone-Persian. There’s an exquisite dining room where you feast on chicken with walnuts and pomegranate and bowls of saffron rice.
It has 32 well-ventilated rooms. Some rooms have a private bathroom with a shower. They also have tents sharing the same showers. A plentiful buffet breakfast is served daily. The caravanserai also serves a selection of traditional Persian dishes for dinner every night. Zein-o-din caravanserai is a 28-minute drive from Saryazd castle; an 1800 years old castle and the last three-story historical structure still existing in Yazd. It is also about a 20-minute drive from Abolfazl restaurant and Karimabad village.
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