Yazd is a city built to survive the desert, and riding into it you feel the logic of every wall. It sits on the dry central plateau of Iran between the Dasht-e Kavir and the Dasht-e Lut, and its old quarter is a maze of mud-brick lanes, domes and covered passages, with badgirs, the tall windcatcher towers, rising above the roofs to catch any breath of moving air and pull it down into the houses. UNESCO listed the historic city in 2017, and it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the country.
Water made Yazd possible. Qanats, underground channels dug by hand from the foot of the mountains to the south, carried groundwater for kilometres under the desert to the city, and some still run. You can go down into one at a water museum in town. Yazd is also the heart of Iran's Zoroastrian community: the Atash Behram fire temple keeps a flame said to have been burning for well over a thousand years, and on the edge of the city stand the Towers of Silence, the low round hills where the dead were once left for the vultures. The Jameh Mosque, with its twin minarets and tiled portal, anchors the old town.
Riding here is a lesson in heat and distance. The roads approaching Yazd are long, straight and well surfaced, crossing plains of gravel and sand with mountains floating in the haze. Summer temperatures are brutal, so ride early, rest through the afternoon and carry far more water than you think. Sand can drift onto the road in wind, and the city traffic is dense and unpredictable, with motorbikes going in every direction. Towards Taft and the Shir Kuh mountains to the southwest, the road climbs into greener, cooler villages with orchards.
Fuel in Iran is cheap but rationed by card for locals, so foreign riders should plan ahead and ask at stations; in a city of half a million people the stations themselves are easy to find. Yazd is famous for its sweets, especially baklava and cotton-candy-like pashmak, and its old-town courtyard guesthouses are wonderful places to rest under the shade of a pomegranate tree. Dress codes apply, so cover up when off the bike.