Yazd city has been inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List as the largest yet inhabited adobe city in the world. The landscape of Yazd with wind catchers, ... is witness of the ingenious architecture that has its roots in the climate features of the area, the dessert, and is considered as a of tangible and intangible heritages. Lack of water and its effect on agriculture, has brought fourth the necessity of other means of income like domestic products. An hour drive from Yazd will take you to Maybod, where clay is used for pottery with its signature design in the form of sunshine, birds, and fish in blue, orange, and pink colors against a white background. Worldwide, Maybod is also famous for its Zilu, a 500-year-old carpet made of cotton threads to suit the dessert climate. Many historical constructs of Yazd have been turned into residential spaces that help visitors get to know the culture and lifestyle of people more closely. The big population of Zoroastrians practicing their rituals in different fire temples and the Markar museum that perfectly presents their heritage has helped preserve this rich Persian culture for 3757 years!

Hi, it's Negin again and in this story I will be introducing the city of Dezful in Khuzestan, Iran and it's surrounding areas. Dezful is known as the World Brick City with bridges, dams, qanats, and buildings going back to the Sassanid eras. A very scenic, hour-long drive from Dezful will take you to Pamenar village, the focal point of interaction and intersection between nomadic and sedentary cultures where a Bakhtiari tribe lives. These inhabitants must be helped to relocate ASAP with the threat of cracked hanging walls that are about to fall down any moment. Inter-institutional cooperation and coordination of public and private sectors and stakeholders is needed to save the villagers' lives whose origin and costumes go back to Parthians. A 40-minute ride from Dezful will take you to the UNESCO World Heritage ancient city of Susa where the presence of Mesopotamian and Iranian civilizations of the pre-historic to historic eras span over 5th century BC - 13th century AD ! Structures of the Elamite, Persian, and Parthian Empires can be seen in the royal city of Susa. An hour ride from Dezful will take you to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System inscribed as a masterpiece of creative genius dating back to Darius the Great in the 5th century BC. The system has diverse uses as urban water supply, mills, irrigation, fish farming, river transport, and defensive system. It testifies as the sustainable development of a human society in harmony with its natural and urban environment. Further involvement of the local community is required for the interpretation of the sites. Finally, a little over an hour ride from Dezful will take to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Tchogha Zanbil, founded in 1250 BC and dedicated to the Elamite divinities. Unfortunately, the increase in air and water pollution caused by sugar cane cultivation calls for sustainable production modes. Also, a change in the course of the nearby river threatens the walls.

My name is Negin Boushehri and last week I had the pleasure of spending two nights at Meymand troglodyte village. I am training to become a tour guide and I was there to explore what the area has to offer for future tours. I stayed at MeymandMoon Ecolodge with friendly and caring people who have themselves escaped urban life to seek refugee in the peaceful nature. What took me to the Cultural Landscape of Meymand was that it was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2015, confirming its outstanding universal value as a cultural and natural property which requires protection for the benefit of all humanity. What stands out for me is that the semi-nomadic villagers live in cave dwellings carved out of soft rock by their ancestors, an unusual form of housing in a dry, desert environment. The above picture is a troglodyte room in MeymandMoon ecolodge where I got to spend the night in an over 2000-year-old, man-made cave and fell sleep on its comfy beds reflecting on all the life that had happened there through out the years! I spent a few days away from city life experiencing three different settlements in the area: the caves in the ecolodge, Sar-e Aghol, and Sae-e Bagh/Abadi, where I joined the locals in washing and shearing the sheep, played fun, traditional games, and made the local "kornou" bread and other food, In Sar-e Bagh I was able to taste some great local wine as I watched the beautiful historical petroglyphs. I also had the opportunity to learn to make "namad", and other types of handicraft which I took with me as a souvenir. Current dwellers are mostly seniors with a decreasing population, which makes authenticity and integrity vulnerable within a generation. Thus, as a guest in MeymandMoon, I was introduced to appropriate sustainable development such as dredging canals and vaccinating livestock, while beautifully taking part in the authentic life to support the traditions and produce that make the village both attractive and sufficiently viable.