Ardakān

Ardakan lies northwest of Yazd on the edge of the central Iranian desert. Its old town was enclosed by high walls, within which stood mosques, houses and religious endowments supplied by the oasis. The town is mentioned in Ilkhanid sources and was home to the Sufi lodge of the Dada'i shaykhs. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries these teachers and their endowments formed part of Ardakan's religious life; the Zir Deh mosque also dates from the Safavid period.