.jpg/960px-%D8%A7%D9%85%DB%8C%D8%B1_%DA%86%D9%82%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%82_(cropped).jpg)
Heritage district of Yazd
The number of Wikipedia languages with an article is our measure of how widely known a site is. How many people have stood at a site or want to go will be shown once enough people use the app.
Seals, your want-to-go list and the year you stood here are kept in the iPhone app.
How it came to be
Yazd is a desert city in the middle of the Iranian plateau, 270 km southeast of Isfahan. It first gained prominence under the Sasanian Empire: under Yazdegerd I (r. 399-420) a mint was set up here, using the abbreviation YZ. After the Muslim conquest many Zoroastrians moved to Yazd from neighbouring provinces, and by paying a levy the city was allowed to remain Zoroastrian, with Islam becoming dominant only gradually.
Its secluded desert setting spared it most major wars, and during the Mongol invasion it was a haven for people fleeing other parts of the Khwarazmian Empire. Marco Polo visited in 1272 and noted the city's fine silk weaving. In the 14th century Yazd was briefly the capital of the Muzaffarid dynasty and withstood a siege by the Injuids in 1350-1351; the Friday mosque, its greatest landmark, dates from this period.
Water reaches the city through qanats that draw on groundwater, and its earthen architecture escaped the modernization that destroyed many traditional earthen towns. Its old districts, qanats, houses, bazaars, hammams, mosques, synagogues, Zoroastrian temples and the garden of Dolat-abad survive, and the city was inscribed in 2017.
Data: Wikidata (CC0). Photos: Wikimedia Commons, under each photo’s license. Prototype; may contain errors. We measure usage anonymously to improve the app (PostHog, EU).