The Bazaar Vakil is the one of the most elegant. Small in size, and hundreds of years old, the cupola archways every two odd metres with floors at chest height. As one casually perambulates along (everything is Shiraz is casual no rush) one can enquire more or less face to face with the retailer who is sitting on the floor.
This colonnaded cupolaed walkway of a couple of hundred metres opens out into a larger market area. Here there is everything pastoral. Horse trappings, ropes, wool shears etc. This is where the goods are offloaded for the bazaar.
It’s a working place and has a great café. An octogen on three levels with a fountain in the middle, where one can order a simple glass of black tea or have a complete party of 8 meal of many courses.
Between this café/restaurant/chaykhana/teahouse and the bazaar proper is a flagstone area for sitting and doing deals and catching up. There are a number of well kept rose bushes. They are the original rose, a single petal rose of great perfume.
This is the source of all the roses in the world and locals and visitors alike treat their presence with great respect.
The rose travelled to Europe and with much breeding became the rose we know today. When this rose returned to Persia they called it Guli Feranghi, the Foreign Rose and sometimes Goli Frank The French Rose as France was and still is a sister of Persia.
