TEHRAN–A team of cultural heritage restorers has finished work on Mayamey caravanserai, a 400-year-old roadside inn named after the central Iranian town situated in Semnan province.

Modest decorations of the caravanseri, its worn-out bricks, and traditional insulation of the rooftops were among the substances treated in this round of restoration in a bid to make it a prosperous tourist destination, a local tourism official said on Tuesday.

There are four iwans (porches) and two entrances in this caravanserai that sprawls across 8,500 square meters. The courtyard is surrounded by rooms and platforms, and behind the rooms are stables. Unlike most caravanserais, the sanitary facilities of the caravanserai are located outside the building and on the western side.

The vast inn is named after Shah Abbas the Great (r. 1588–1629), who ordered the construction of such roadside inns across the country. The mud-brick structure was inscribed on the National Heritage list in 1986.

UNESCO assessors will be evaluating this Shah Abbasi caravanserai for the possible inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The Islamic Republic has submitted an inclusive dossier on its caravanserais to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The dossier comprises obligatory data about a selection of 56 caravanserais, which are scattered across the ancient land. And the shortlist includes qualified caravanserais located in at least 24 provinces.

For many travelers to Iran, staying in or even visiting a centuries-old caravanserai can be a wide experience; they have an opportunity to feel the past, a time travel back to a forgotten age.

Caravanserai or caravansary is a compound word combining “caravan” with “sara”; the former stands for a group of travelers and the latter means the building. They often had massive portals supported by elevated load-bearing walls. Guest rooms were constructed around the courtyard and stables behind them, with doors in the corners of the yard.

A couple of years ago, the Iran tourism ministry introduced a scheme to keep them alive and profitable; tens of caravanserais are ceded to private investors for better maintenance. Now, some are exclusively renovated and repurposed into boutique hotels and tourist lodgings.

Cozy chambers that are meticulously laid out around a vast courtyard may easily evoke spirits of the past. It’s not hard to fancy the hustle and bustle of merchants bargaining on prices, recounting their arduous journeys to one another while their camels chewing hay! You can also conceive the idea of local architectural style and material in its heyday.

It’s not hard to fancy the hustle and bustle of merchants bargaining on prices, recounting their arduous journeys to one another while their camels chewing hay!

Passing major roads in the country, one may see crumbling caravanserais, many of which were abandoned for ages. In the Information Age, such guest houses have largely lost their actual usage.

They often had massive portals supported by elevated load-bearing walls. Guest rooms were constructed around the courtyard and stables behind them, with doors in the corners of the yard.

The earliest caravanserais in Iran were built during the Achaemenid era (550 - 330 BC). Centuries later, when Shah Abbas I assumed power from 1588–to 1629, he ordered the construction of a network of caravanserais across the country. Such roadside inns were once constructed along ancient caravan routes in the Muslim world to shelter people, their goods and animals. The former Silk Road may be the most famous example dotted by caravanserais.

AM