Historic City of Yazd

Yazd holds out at the heart of Iran's high desert plateau, some 270 km from Isfahan near the old Spice and Silk Roads — proof of how little a city needs to live well in the desert. Its qanats draw underground water, and its earthen architecture escaped the modernisation that levelled many mud-built towns, keeping traditional quarters and houses, bazars and hammams, mosques, synagogues and Zoroastrian fire temples, plus the historic Dolat-abad garden. UNESCO inscribed the historic city in 2017.