The provincial capital of Yazd is said to be the best surviving old, inhabited, city in Iran. Its ancient meandering sun-dried mud-brick lanes are full of abandoned houses and empty bazaars – people have either moved out to the new town area, to bigger cities, or overseas. But the modern town is thriving. In the centre is the Amir Chakhmaq takieh (c1400), an imposing place where Shi’a Muslims commemorate the death of Imam Hossein in the month of Moharram. The Jameh Mosque , fifteen minutes walk away in the relentless desert heat, dominates the skyline of the old city with its soaring fifteenth century entrance portal flanked by two magnificent tiled minarets 48m high. The tile and mosaic work throughout this mosque is quite exquisite. Yazd is also home to the country’s largest Zoroastrian community – perhaps 5,000 souls, representing a sizable proportion of the 150,000 worldwide. On the edge of town there lies a modern Zoroastrian “Fire Temple” where an eternal flame (known as Ateshkadeh) burns behind a glass window, regularly fed with dry wood by the temple priests.