1.
Caravanserai
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A caravanserai (/kærəˈvænsəri/, was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the days journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of routes covering Asia, North Africa. Major urban caravanserais were built along the Grand Trunk Road in the Indian subcontinent. The word is rendered as caravansary, caravansaray, caravanseray. The Persian word کاروانسرای kārvānsarāy is a word combining kārvān caravan with sarāy palace, building with enclosed courts. Here caravan means a group of traders, pilgrims, or other travelers, the word serai is sometimes used with the implication of caravanserai. The Persian caravanserai was built as a road station, outside of towns. An inn built inside a town would be smaller and was known in Persian as a khan, in the Middle-East the term khan covers both meanings, of roadside inn as well as of inner-town inn. In Turkish the word is rendered as han, the same word was used in Bosnian, having arrived through Ottoman conquest. Welcoming all, thus meaning inn, led to funduq in Arabic, pundak in Hebrew, fundaco in Venice, fondaco in Genoa and alhóndiga in Spanish. Guards were stationed at every gate to ensure that taxes for these goods be paid in full, most typically a caravanserai was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, with a single portal wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts such as camels to enter. Caravanserais provided water for human and animal consumption, washing, and ritual purification such as wudu and they also kept fodder for animals and had shops for travelers where they could acquire new supplies. In addition, some shops bought goods from the traveling merchants, turkishhan. org, The Seljuk Han in Anatolia. Encyclopædia Iranica, p. 798-802 Erdmann, Kurt, Erdmann, berlin, Mann,1976, ISBN 3-7861-2241-5 Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture, Form, function and meaning, reprinted from, Traditions Architecturales en Iran, Tehran, No.2 &3,1976. Caravanserai, Traces, Places, Dialogue in the Middle East, milan,5 Continents Editions, ISBN 978-88-7439-604-7 Yavuz, Aysil Tükel. The Concepts that Shape Anatolian Seljuq Caravansara, muqarnas XIV, An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. Shah Abbasi Caravanserai, Tishineh Caravansara Pictures Consideratcaravanserai. net, Texts and photos on research on caravanserais and travel journeys in Middle East, caravanserais in Turkey The Seljuk Han in Anatolia
2.
Yazd
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Yazd, formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of Yazd Province, Iran. The city is located 270 km southeast of Esfahan, at the 2011 census, the population was 486,152. Because of generations of adaptations to its surroundings, Yazd has a unique Persian architecture. It is nicknamed the City of Windcatchers from its many examples, Yazd has a history of over 5,000 years, dating back to the time of the Median empire, when it was known as Ysatis or Issatis. The present city name, however, is derived from Yazdegerd I, the city was definitely a Zoroastrian center during Sassanid times. After the Arab conquest of Iran, many Zoroastrians migrated to Yazd from neighboring provinces, by paying a levy, Yazd was allowed to remain Zoroastrian even after its conquest, and Islam only gradually became the dominant religion in the city. Because of its desert location and the difficulty of access, Yazd remained largely immune to large battles. For instance, it was a haven for those fleeing from destruction in other parts of Persian Empire during the Mongol invasion, in 1272 it was visited by Marco Polo, who remarked on the citys fine silk-weaving industry. In the book The Travels of Marco Polo, he described Yazd in the way, It is a good and noble city. They weave there quantities of a certain silk tissue known as Yasdi, when you leave this city to travel further, you ride for seven days over great plains, finding harbour to receive you at three places only. There are also wild asses, handsome creatures, at the end of those seven marches over the plain, you come to a fine kingdom which is called Kerman. Yazd briefly served as the capital of the Muzaffarid Dynasty in the fourteenth century, the Friday mosque, arguably the citys greatest architectural landmark, as well as other important buildings, date to this period. During the Qajar dynasty it was ruled by the Bakhtiari Khans, under the rule of the Safavid, some people migrated from Yazd and settled in an area that is today on the Iran-Afghanistan border. The settlement, which was named Yazdi, was located in what is now Farah City in the province of the name in Afghanistan. Even today, people from this area speak with an accent very similar to that of the people of Yazd, one of the notable things about Yazd is its family-centered culture. According to official statistics from Irans National Organization for Civil Registration, the Majority people in Yazd are Muslims. There is also a population of Zoroastrians in the city. There was once a relatively large Jewish-Yazdi community, however, after the creation of Israel, former president of Israel Moshe Katsav is an example
3.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
4.
Roman roads
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They provided efficient means for the overland movement of armies, officials, and civilians, and the inland carriage of official communications and trade goods. Roman roads were of several kinds, ranging from local roads to broad, long-distance highways built to connect cities, major towns. These major roads were often stone-paved and metaled, cambered for drainage and they were laid along accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills, or conducted over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections could be supported over marshy ground on rafted or piled foundations, at the peak of Romes development, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the capital, and the late Empires 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great roads. The whole comprised more than 400,000 kilometres of roads, in Gaul alone, no less than 21,000 kilometres of roadways are said to have been improved, and in Britain at least 4,000 kilometres. The courses of many Roman roads survived for millennia, some are overlaid by modern roads, livy mentions some of the most familiar roads near Rome, and the milestones on them, at times long before the first paved road—the Appian Way. Unless these allusions are just simple anachronisms, the referred to were probably at the time little more than levelled earthen tracks. Thus, the Via Gabina is mentioned in about 500 BC, the Via Latina in about 490 BC, the Via Nomentana, in 449 BC, the Via Labicana in 421 BC, and the Via Salaria in 361 BC. There is hardly a district to which we expect a Roman official to be sent, on service either civil or military. They reach the Wall in Britain, run along the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates, and cover, as with a network, a road map of the empire reveals that it was generally laced with a dense network of prepared viae. Beyond its borders there were no paved roads, however, it can be supposed that footpaths, there were, for instance, some pre-Roman ancient trackways in Britain, such as the Ridgeway and the Icknield Way. For specific roads, see Roman road locations below, the Laws of the Twelve Tables, dated to about 450 BC, specified that a road shall be 8 Roman feet wide where straight and twice that width where curved. Actual practices varied from this standard, the Tables command Romans to build roads and give wayfarers the right to pass over private land where the road is in disrepair. Roman law defined the right to use a road as a servitus, the ius eundi established a claim to use an iter, or footpath, across private land, the ius agendi, an actus, or carriage track. A via combined both types of servitutes, provided it was of the width, which was determined by an arbiter. The default width was the latitudo legitima of 8 feet, Roman law and tradition forbade the use of vehicles in urban areas, except in certain cases. Married women and government officials on business could ride, the Lex Iulia Municipalis restricted commercial carts to night-time access in the city within the walls and within a mile outside the walls. Such roads led either to the sea, or to a town, or to a public river and these roads bear the names of their constructors
5.
Fodder
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A crop is any cultivated plant, fungus, or alga that is harvested for food, clothing, livestock, fodder, biofuel, medicine, or other uses. In contrast, animals that are raised by humans are called livestock, microbes, such as bacteria or viruses, are referred to as cultures. Microbes are not typically grown for food, but are used to alter food. For example, bacteria are used to ferment milk to produce yogurt, major crops include sugarcane, pumpkin, maize, wheat, rice, cassava, soybeans, hay, potatoes, and cotton. Sleper, David A. Poehlman, John M. Breeding Field Crops
6.
The George Inn, Southwark
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The George, or George Inn, is a public house established in the medieval period on Borough High Street in Southwark, London. Currently owned and leased by the National Trust, it is located about 250 m from the side of the River Thames near London Bridge. It is by far the oldest pub in London and it is also notable as the only surviving galleried London coaching inn. The first map of Southwark clearly shows it marked as Gorge and it was formerly known as the George and Dragon, named after the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. There were many inns in this part of London. Probably the most famous was The Tabard where, in 1388, in 1677 the George was rebuilt after a serious fire that destroyed most of medieval Southwark. The Tabard was also rebuilt after the fire, but was demolished in the late nineteenth century. It is known that galleried inns were used for Elizabethan theatrical productions and it is thought that the Players were on a dais in the courtyard with the standing audience next to them and that those paying a premium would be in the galleries with a better view. Later, the Great Northern Railway used the George as a depot, now just the south face remains. The George was one of the famous coaching inns in the days of Charles Dickens. Dickens in fact visited the George and referred to it in Little Dorrit, the building is partly timber framed. The ground floor is divided into a number of connected bars, the Parliament Bar used to be a waiting room for passengers on coaches. The Middle Bar was the Coffee Room, which was frequented by Charles Dickens, the bedrooms, now a restaurant, were upstairs in the galleried part of the building. It is one of two coaching inns to survive in Greater London, and is the only galleried example. The White Hart is immediately to the north, and the site of The Tabard immediately to the south, the building is Grade I listed, and is listed in CAMRAs National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. The beer writer Pete Brown explores the history of the pub in his book Shakespeares Local and provides a lot of information about the pub, George Inn information at the National Trust
7.
The Tabard
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The Tabard was a historic inn that stood on the east side of Borough High Street in Southwark. The hostelry, which was first established in 1307, stood on the ancient thoroughfare that led south from London Bridge to Canterbury and Dover. It was built originally for the Abbot of Hyde who purchased the land to construct a place to stay for himself, the Tabard was also famous for accommodating the numerous pilgrims taking the annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. It is mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucers 14th Century work The Canterbury Tales, the inn, which was clustered around a yard, was entered through a gateway off the high street. The inn was located on Borough High Street in Southwark, on the bank of the Thames. It stood near the Manor of Southwark, controlled by the Bishops of Winchester, also known as the Liberty of Winchester, the manor lay outside the jurisdiction of the City of London. In these times, the Tabard would have filled with pilgrims, drunks, travellers, criminals. Chaucer wrote that The Tabard was the location where the pilgrims first met on their journey to Canterbury in the 1380s, on 26 May 1676, ten years after the Great Fire of London, a great blaze started in Southwark. The Tabard was among many buildings that were burned down or pulled down to create fire breaks. The blaze, which took 17 hours to contain, destroyed most of medieval Southwark, king Charles II and his brother the Duke of York were both involved in the firefighting effort. Although the medieval building was destroyed, the site was immediately rebuilt, in the early 18th Century, the new inn was profiting from the growth in stagecoach traffic between London and the channel ports because of the growth in turnpikes. By the early 19th Century, the Talbert remained a well-renowned coaching inn, however, with the advent of the railways, it eventually closed. The building was converted into stores. The Tabard was situated to the east of Borough High Street next door to The George in Talbot Yard and it was unveiled by former Python and medieval enthusiast Terry Jones. The Tabard Inn in Southwark, another nineteenth-century engraving
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