Amidst the endless miles of golden deserts and along the ancient camel trading routes of the Silk Road, sit the majestic Caravan sari. Built as hostelries for the travelling tradesmen and their camels, they sit at regular intervals along the trunk roads running through ancient Persia. Leaving Yazd, in the central area of Iran, we travelled past the ‘Towers of Silence’ where the Temple of Fire worshippers buried their dead in the pits of man made hills. The destination that day was Kerman, a desert city in the East and quite close to the Pakistan and Afghanistan borders.

Our midday stop was at a deserted caravan sari where our driver brought out table and chairs and began to brew some tea. We wandered around the majestic sandstone building, weaving in and out of beautifully constructed arches and marvelling at their ability to catch the wind through perfectly positioned slits in the walls. The overall effect is of a calming and cool respite from the fierce temperatures outside. As we emerged from the building to have our tea, the desert road shimmered in the heat and the distances seemed endless. This was a truly sublime and mystical moment.