I woke at 0400 and fell asleep again till I heard faint tinkling of my alarm. I readied myself for breakfast at 0800 before leaving the hostel at 0900. It was hot already but there was no point starting too early as various sights open at 0900.
First up, I wanted to visit Hammam-e Sultan Mir Ahmad but it was closed. So I continued to Tabatabaei House nearby. As the three-site ticket gives a good saving, I checked whether the hammam would be open and the man rang up to find that there was no answer. So I had to make do with a single ticket for this site.
The mansion was built around 1880 and is characterised with beautiful stone reliefs on its walls, including finely-carved cypress trees. It had some wind towers which are connected to the cellars. It was such a treat to descend into the cellar and sit in the cool there, or even better into the “cooler cellar” which was one step cooler of course!
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Tabatabaiee House, built around 1880. Richly decorated with relief work.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Tabatabaiee House, built around 1880. Richly decorated with relief work.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Tabatabaiee House, built around 1880. Richly decorated with relief work.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Tabatabaiee House, built around 1880. Richly decorated with relief work.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Tabatabaiee House, built around 1880. Richly decorated with relief work.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Tabatabaiee House, built around 1880. Richly decorated with relief work.
On my way out, the ticket man told me that the hammam has opened. He gladly took my ticket and upgraded me to the three-site ticket for the difference in price.
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- The tickets to some museums spit out a welcome message in the visitor’s national language.
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- Unusual mosque with conical roof.
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- Unusual mosque with conical roof.
Nothing could have prepared me for the beauty of the Hammam-e Sultan Mir Ahmad. The first main room of this 500 year old bath house had tiled was decorated with tiles and delicate painted patterns, while the second only had mainly painted patterns. Both were just mind-blowingly beautiful.
On the way out, I was asked to go up to the rooftop for a peek at the view. I being amongst the domed roofs of hammams, ever since I was led up one for the very first time umpteenth years ago in Tripoli, in the north of Lebanon.
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- Sultan Mir Ahmad bath house. Dream bathroom! Look at the ceiling!
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- Sultan Mir Ahmad bath house. Dream bathroom! Tiled upper ceiling, relief and painted lower ceiling and walls
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- Sultan Mir Ahmad bath house. Dream bathroom! Relief and painted ceiling and walls.
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- Sultan Mir Ahmad bath house. Dream bathroom! Relief and painted ceiling and walls.
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- Sultan Mir Ahmad bath house. Dream bathroom! Relief and painted ceiling and walls.
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- Sultan Mir Ahmad bath house. Dream bathroom! Relief and painted ceiling and walls.
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- Sultan Mir Ahmad bath house. Rooftop view.
Next up was Khan-e Abbasian where I had dined last night. The show-home part of the mansion was quite separate and I was surprised to see it had a sunken/excavated courtyard with rooms surrounding it, much like the design of my hostel, which was very effective at keeping cool. It also means you can have an extra storey without people on the outside realising it.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Abbasi House.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Abbasi House.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Abbasi House.
Finally I visited Khan-e Boroujerdi which had beautiful frescoes.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Boroujerdi House.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Boroujerdi House.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Boroujerdi House has beautifully painted murals.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Boroujerdi House. Playing dress up.
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- Homes of the rich and famous of old. Boroujerdi House. Wind Tower. The horizontal poles allow birds to sit there and poop. The droppings are collected as fertiliser.
My tummy beckoned and I returned to Khan-e Abbasian and ordered the meal that Johannes had last night (eggplant and camel meat). Strangely, I thought his one was tastier. Perhaps the stew needed to sit a little more through the day for the flavour to emerge. It had a nice salty and sour flavour (from the tomatoes) and camel meat is like lean beef.
It was going to be a standard feature of my days in Iran that I would rest in the afternoon. It is far too hot and scorching to be in the sun. I had organised with a Spanish (Basque) duo Mikel and Puri (Purificacion) to have dinner together. They would go with me to Abyaneh and Esfahan by car tomorrow as well.
They were a little confused with their restaurant choice and its whereabouts. Once I stepped in with Google Maps on my phone, we were sorted but it was a little further (and through back alleys) than I would have liked to walk.
We managed to get a table at Manouchehrie House without a reservation and had a nice meal together. Coffee followed on the patio afterwards and they offered to pay for my meal as thanks for organising tomorrow.