The mud-brick desert city
Yazd
An earth-coloured city of domes and wind towers in central Iran, with one tall gateway of blue tile.
Why Yazd is adobe tan
Yazd stands between two deserts in the centre of Iran. Its old city is built of sun-dried mud brick coated in a plaster of clay and straw, so walls, domes and lanes are all one soft tan. Above the roofs rise badgirs, wind towers that catch the breeze and send it down into the rooms below. Underground channels called qanats bring water from the hills. Against the earth colour, the 14th-century Jameh Mosque is a shock of blue: its tall gateway and paired minarets are faced with turquoise and dark blue tile. Yazd is also a centre of the Zoroastrian faith. It became a World Heritage Site in 2017.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Yazd
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Yazd" on Wikipedia. If you know Yazd and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
🇮🇷 Half the world, in turquoiseIsfahanSafavid mosques around a vast square are covered inside and out with turquoise and deep blue tiles.
🇮🇷 The village carved in grey conesKandovanA village in north-west Iran where homes are hollowed out of pale cone-shaped rocks of volcanic ash.
🇮🇷 City of the Pink MosqueShirazA mosque tiled in pink roses, where morning sun through coloured glass paints the carpets.
🇮🇳 Ruins among golden bouldersHampiThe ruined capital of Vijayanagara lies among heaps of ochre granite boulders and bright green paddy.
🇮🇩 Home of court batikYogyakartaThe royal city of central Java, whose classic batik is drawn in brown, indigo and white.
🇺🇿 The sand-coloured holy cityBukharaAn oasis city of pale brick, where patterned brickwork does the work of colour and blue domes are accents.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Hampi In: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, source
- Yogyakarta Id: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bukhara Uz: Euyasik, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Isfahan Ir: Pedram forouzanfar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kandovan Ir: Rəcəb Yaxşı, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Shiraz Ir: آرش (Arche), CC BY-SA 3.0, source