Zeinodin Caravanserai

This roadside inn on the old road from Yazd to Kerman was built at the end of the sixteenth century under Shah Abbas I. Of the nearly one thousand caravanserais founded during his reign, only two were circular in plan, and Zeinodin is the only one to survive: five towers around the circle, twelve living alcoves opening onto the inner courtyard, and a single gallery running right around the perimeter. The circle here is not ornament but calculation — a wall like this has no corners that are easier to breach, and the caravan inside is protected all the way round. The building stands in open desert about sixty kilometres from Yazd, with the nearest houses far away, so the nights here are genuinely dark and the Milky Way is visible. By the early 2000s the caravanserai lay in ruins; a private restoration gave it back its vaulted roofs and clay plaster, in 2006 the work received a UNESCO award, and the courtyard itself became an inn once more — guests sleep in those same open alcoves on platforms spread with carpets. Electricity has been laid on, but water is still brought in.

Address

جاده مهریز- مروست, دهستان خورمیز

On the map