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Day 88: No trip to Esfahan is (apparently) complete without a visit to the famous “shaking minarets” at the tomb of Manar Jonban some 6km out of town. Here I will let the English language panel at the tomb speak for itself:

“The building known as Manar Jonban is the mausoleum of Amoo Abdollah Gariadani, an Iranian mystic living in the 14th century. Dating back to the Il-Khand period (1256-1353 AD) and facing Kaba, it is a single iwan flanked by two minarets. It seems that the minarets are later annexes. Their architecture allows them to be shaken, with shaking each one, the other also shakes - hence the name. This has always had a great fascination for Iranian and foreign visitors so that it has overshadowed the other architectural and historial characteristics.”

These days, concerns about the structural integrity of the minarets have constrained the shaking to once per hour, on the hour, by a tomb official. (Back in the day, tourists could climb up and have a go themelves. This would have been fun, as it has always been a dream of mine to shake a 600 year old minaret.)