Maranjab Caravanserai

The Maranjab caravanserai stands in the middle of the Dasht-e Kavir desert, roughly sixty kilometres north of Kashan, on the old road from central Persia to Khorasan. It was built at the beginning of the seventeenth century by Shah Abbas I to guard the caravan road along the salt flat and to give merchants a night's lodging where there is neither water nor housing for tens of kilometres around. The building resembles a small fortress: blank brick walls with round towers at the corners, a single entrance through a vaulted portal, and inside a square courtyard with a water basin and two rows of cells around the perimeter. Water was brought in by an underground channel, and watch was kept from the flat roofs. The complex numbers about thirty rooms, stables and a common hall; some of the cells still serve as simple lodging for those who come to see the dunes and the salt flat. Real sand desert with high dunes begins all around, and at night it is very dark and quiet here. The caravanserai stands in the middle of the desert 60 km from Kashan, and the last part of the road is a dirt track along the salt flat, so a four-wheel drive or a local driver is better. Some of the cells work as simple lodging; people come here for the dunes and the very dark night sky. Cash is essential.

On the map