When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men. - Jalaludin Rumi
 

Herati men at prayer, at a  makeshift masque

nan ("noon") - the ubiquitous and dirt-cheap (government-subsidized, at least in Iran) unleavened bread of Afghanistan and Iran... delicious when still warm from the oven, and a great companion to chai (tea). The turquoise blue of the window frame will be well known to anyone who has traveled through the region.

Herat: the mausoleum of Timurid queen Gawhar Shad, wife of Shah Rukh, youngest son of Tamerlane. The minarets (6 still stand, of the original 12) are all that remain of Gawhar Shad's great Musalla complex, built in the late 1400's. It consisted of a madrassa (seminary) and a musalla (place of worship). The buildings flanked by the minarets had once been described as "the most imposing and eloquent structures to be seen in all Asia". The men in the foreground are making and sun-drying the clay-mud bricks that comprise the fragile, earthquaqe- vulnerable shell of most buildings in southwestern asia.

    Posted 2 Dec 2001. Last updated 9 Dec 2001.

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