Tour Guide, Isfahan, Iran
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Varzaneh is located 105km southeast of Isfahan and 240km away from Yazd.
It has a population of 14,000 sprawlings over 23,000km² at an altitude of 1477m above sea level. Like most parts of central Iran, it has a quite dry desert climate. Almost all of the year, it has the same temperature of Isfahan city. The temperature sometimes drops below zero in January and February after midnight. Due to the lack of humidity, people feel less steamy and disappointing weather in summer. Since there are much less dust and almost no cloud in the sky in summer, it has an ideal area around for stargazing. If you travel in summer, avoid visiting its desert from 11 in the morning until 4 pm as the sands are burning hot. In all neighbourhoods of the town, you will see plenty of Iran desert traditional houses and guesthouses.
Varzaneh was the last civilization on the Zayanderud river since 5000 years ago. The Zayanderud river ends at Gavkhouni wetland which is 30km east of Varzaneh. Within the lands between wetland and Varzaneh, signs of very ancient civilization are unearthed. Further investigations on some pots that have been discovered, confirms the fact that the district of Varzaneh has been inhabited for 5,000 years.
Varzaneh is famous regionally and all over the world for its spectacular desert, which ranked as one of the most accessible deserts of Iran, in particular for tourists coming to Isfahan city. Many travellers like their desert close to civilization - that way they have food and water easy to reach by car, and access to medical centres in the case of any problem. Although Varzaneh desert is ranked as one of the safest deserts of Iran, it's only 15km away from its sand dune desert.
Unique to Varzaneh, are the local women's costumes. They wear completely white chadors, while women in the rest of Iran, mostly wear black chadors.
Many local people speak an ancient Pahlavi Sasani dialect, a quite similar dialect to that spoken by the Zoroastrians in Yazd today. According to some of the linguists, the word Varzaneh has a connection to the verb Varzidan (ورزیدن), which means farming in old Persian. The atmosphere is basically a typical desert village of Iran.