Ardakan
Ardakan (Persian اردکان, also: Ardekan ) is a city in the Iranian province of Yazd.
Ardakan means in the Persian sacred place or cleaner place. In the city there are a number of historic buildings such as the mosques Masjed -e Jame and Zire - deh or Tekiyeh Bazaar. With 51 349 inhabitants in 2006 Ardakan is the second largest city of the province. It lies about 60 km from the provincial capital of Yazd in very dry climates.
History
Ardakan was founded in the 12th century in the region Zardug. During the 19th and 20th century, the city developed into a major hub for caravans. In 1900 Ardakan had about 15,000 inhabitants and was surrounded by high walls. In 1950 only about 12,000 people in the city. After 1959 a new road was built through the town center, the population rose to 14,333 by 1966.
The city is also a major center of Zoroastrianism. In particular, the village Sharif -Abad is an annual destination for thousands of Zoroastrian pilgrims from around the world in the near Ardakan. In Sharif Abad is the shrine of Pir -e Sabz, which is for the Zoroastrian religion of great importance.
Urban History
In Ardakan as in other traditional cities in the central Iranian region (eg in Neyschaboor ) the wide and straight streets to car traffic, the urban foundations and structures of the city are not taken into account during construction. In Ardakan this had the effect that the construction of the adjacent building to the environmental conditions at the edge of deserts is no longer just because the windows and openings are too large for the heat and the road space is too wide to offer sufficient shade. Today's new road room appears monotonous and chaotic, not least due to the fact that this area of the layout and sequence qualities have been destroyed, which were characteristic of the existing road network.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Mohammad Khatami ( born October 14, 1943), former President of Iran.
- Mohammad Reza Khatami ( born 1959 ), politician and co-founder of the Islamic Iran Participation Front