Allahverdi Khan Bridge, also known Se-o-Se Pol, Esfahan, during the day, with the dried Zayandeh River, Esfahan, Iran
The truly sad story about Esfahan is the dried up Zayandeh River. Its riverbed does not even show a small puddle, making beautiful old bridges like Se-O-Se Pool Bridge rest in a dire-looking flat terrain of gravel. Why is that? The precious liquid is diverted upriver, around the area of Yazd, watering pistachio farms and used for making tiles (the desert sand providing unlimited material to do so) in the many factories around Yazd. Of course the lack of rain has added to the problem.
The consequences are severe, the otherwise many birds have lost their natural habitat and the foundations of the bridges suffer we were told. Only for three months out of the year the water is allowed to flow through beautiful Esfahan. Needless to say, Esfahani are outraged about what they consider gross political mismanagement.
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