We awake in our lovely hotel in Yazd, where the tables in the restaurant are decorated with fresh, sweet scented roses from the garden in the courtyard, and a couple of huge Macaws rest on a perch above a fountain in the lobby.
Shiraz is a beautiful City. The Aryo hotel, where we are lodged, is comfortable and less formal than the Ferdossi in Tehran. We stay 2 nights, and while there, we spend most of our time sightseeing. We visit Persepolis, Necropolis, and the Naqshi Rajab on the first day. These are major archeological sites. Persepolis is stunning to view, spread out on the mountainside where it has been for 2500 years. Apparently Persepolis was unearthed, literally, by western archeologists in the early part of the 20th century. This is a benefit of internationalism, if not to imperialism.
We are meeting our guide at 11 am to go to Friday Prayers at Tehran University. Friday is the Muslim Day of Prayer as Sunday is the day most Christians attend church and, of course the Sabbath is the Jewish day of rest. In Iran, the weekend is on Thursday and Friday. Friday at noon, Mosques have the main service of the week, except of course for religious holidays. Since the inception of the Islamic State in Iran, Friday Prayers, especially at the central mosques, and especially in Tehran where the government is located have both religious content and a government approved political message. Friday Prayers in Tehran are broadcast on the radio and the political message is covered on TV and in the Newspaper. Because of this, many Iranians, even devout Muslims, don’t attend Friday Prayers. However, in a city like Tehran, there are still thousands of people who do attend.
