A Persian garden is an idea more than a place. It is a walled rectangle divided into four by channels of running water, with trees for shade, fruit and flowers, and a pavilion at the centre or end, built as a copy of paradise, which is a Persian word meaning walled enclosure. Bagh-e Pahlavanpur, in the oasis town of Mehriz, near Yazd, is one of nine gardens that UNESCO listed in 2011 as the Persian Garden. It is a long, narrow garden of a later period, with a main axis running up a gentle slope, watered by a qanat, with pools, fountains, rows of cypress and pomegranate, and a pavilion at the end that looks down the whole length.
The point of the garden is the contrast. Outside the wall the land is dust, rock and heat, and inside the air is cool and smells of water, leaves and blossom. The sound of flowing water is constant, and the shade is deep. In spring, the roses and the orange blossom are fragrant, and in autumn the pomegranates hang red on the trees. The Persians used gardens for picnics, poetry and quiet, and the custom is still alive, with families sitting on carpets under the trees in the evening.
Mehriz is a small, friendly town with a long history, set in an oasis among pistachio groves, and not far from Zeynoddin, an old caravanserai on the road across the desert. Yazd, the nearby city, is a labyrinth of mud-brick lanes, wind towers and domed water cisterns, listed by UNESCO in 2017.
Riding here needs care, with high temperatures in summer and long distances between towns. Check the rules for foreign visitors and vehicles before you go. Mehriz has fuel, shops and cafés, and Taft and Yazd are larger. Take water, a hat and sunglasses. Spring, when the gardens are in bloom, and autumn are the best seasons.