Travel Guide Nain

Around the city's central roundabout, tourists furry among the many carpet shops. The eyes go quickly on the old peel houses and stop barely on one of the oldest mosques in the country: In Nain came mainly to admire the carpets among the most beautiful of the country. One figure suffices to say the most: one million knots per square meter! That is the finesse of the book. For amateurs, Nain is therefore an essential step in discovering Iran.A strategic positionLocated in the center of Iran, halfway between Ispahan and Yazd, Nain's old town was a long-standing crossroads on the Silk Road. The caravans took one last step before joining any of the great bazaars of the Persian royal lane. The ruins of the sassanial fortifications reflect the city's long history and its strategic and commercial importance. At the point of Dasht e-Kevir, the great Iranian desert, urbanism developed in Dain only thanks to Qanats and tanks that allowed the people to always have good water reserves and to supply caravans. The importance of the city of Nain is not only historic, it is also architectural, and several notable monuments allow it to be measured in the center of the city.Carpets but not that.Don't be surprised at your fervor. Nain houses a beautiful set of wind towers and one of the oldest mosques in the country. The oldest elements of this famous mosque go back to the first half of the tenth century. The interior courtyard, in the abbasside style, is surrounded by arcades without iwan. Only four primitive mosques of this type are still available in Iran. Among the highlights of the visit note the remarkable mihrab with an extremely original décor dating back to 940. Also admire the beautiful minbar (chair for the prayer) of the XIV century carved wood and the extraordinary finesse of decorations all around. Finally, linger on the decoration of the silk, innovative at the time, mixing geometric and floral motifs obtained through the sequence of bricks. Note especially the beautiful calligraphy. In the courtyard, you will notice strange white stones. It is in fact algae, whose properties allow the light to pass through and illuminate the full basement beneath the mosque. This basement was used to greet the faithful in winter, when the cold made prayers impossible in the outer courtyard. By the way, you will only have a few steps to take to get an overview of the old town of Nain and its abbassified origins. A deep restoration has been undertaken since the early 2000 s to save the old town, massaged around its citadel. We travel in time by following the narrow streets lined with wall, and we remain a pantois of admiration in front of the gigantic tanks and other coolers that kept water and food supplies safe from heavy bats.Governor's HouseRepresenting the beautiful sefecal houses, the governor's house, located in front of the Friday mosque, consists of a large set articulated around a rectangular courtyard with water from a basin. The summer ventilation by badgir (wind tower) is doubled in winter of a boiler system installed in the basement and hot air generator. Note the richness of the stuc decorations on the facades of the inner courtyard and the elegant mushrooms. Old and discreet wall paintings with brown beige tones also appear in places. The visit is especially worth the house, because the historic exhibition is not the most exciting, but it can be seen a nice capharnaüm where old armors, dishes, weavers and other archeological finds are involved.A missing neighborhoodIt is more north of the Old Town, in the Mohammadiyeh district, which was the first town of Nain, around a citadel that only ruins. But the visit is interesting. Many workshops have remained in the ancient troglodytic homes sparked by Muslims. A carpet point to search here, these workshops specialize in the weaving of camel hair in order to realize the large brown roofs worn by mullahs throughout the country. These roofs had excellent insulation properties but were unfortunately increasingly replaced by cotton, less expensive and less long to produce. Some workshops, in response to the demand crisis, begin a cautious conversion to other types of products - first-time tourism memories, but also kilims. A visit will be the occasion to make a beautiful meeting with craftsmen perpetuating a fine know-how.Ancestral TraditionNain remains one of the country's references to traditional carpet trade, woven with family or workshops at the entrance to the city, in the basement of old buildings. Once on the ground, don't hesitate to lose yourself in the maze of old and covered streets, intended once to protect the inhabitants of external attacks. You will be able to report on the work required to manufacture a naive carpet, but will certainly not have the pleasure of acquiring one: the bulk of the production is ordered or pre-empted by the traders who book them for export. But who knows, you may have the chance to get on a good deal!The must of the carpetWhat forges such a reputation around the world? This is often the density and quality of the knocking. The wire used is extremely finesse, making it possible to make up to one million knots per square meter, guaranteeing the carpet both solidity and delicacy in decorations and an important variety of colors. The solidity of the whole, despite the finesse of the yarns, is ensured by the quality of the textile used, often silk, in whole or in part. Naive carpets are therefore cut to last and often pass from generation to generation.Nain carpets are also renowned for the quality of their decorations, systematically wrapped around a central medallion and declining long arabesques and interrelays towards the perimeter of the carpet. Floral or plant patterns are often very represented on nain carpets, creating shimmering color varieties whose intensity varies depending on the inclination of light.Find the goodTo increase your knowledge of naive carpets, you can be sure that their fabric is of variable quality, defined by the number of the, Persian term giving the number of layers of yarns that constitute each son of the weft. Carpets are found at 4, 6, 8 or 9. The criterion is that the smaller the number, the higher the quality of the carpet. You can very easily count the number of the rugs in the carpet: If you count such numbers on a fringe, divide that number by two to get the number. A four-son fringe corresponds to a carpet at 2 la, or a carpet of the highest quality. Because the smaller the number, the finer the carpet will be. A carpet to 2 equals 1 million knots per square meter at least.