Qualla: Markar Clock Tower

Markar Clock Tower: Introduction

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mohamad.baghipoor, CC BY-SA 4.0. The last line of poetry carved into the Markar Clock Tower reads: "I am happy from the good deeds of Markar." It sounds like a simple dedication. But the line is also a mathematical puzzle. Each Persian letter carries a numerical value in the Abjad system, and when you add them up -- shin (300) plus alef (1) plus dal (4), and so on through every character -- the total comes to exactly 1320, the year of the tower's construction in the Solar Hijri calendar. The phrase "good deeds" is itself a Zoroastrian maxim. In twenty syllables, the poet Naser encoded a date, a faith, and a thank-you note. The tower is only four meters tall. It says more than buildings ten times its size.

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Image: Mohamad.baghipoor | CC BY-SA 4.0

Markar Clock Tower: The Dead Center of a Country

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pshaterani, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Markar Clock Tower stands at what is considered the geographic center of Iran. Yazd occupies this position by virtue of geometry and history both -- the city sits almost equidistant from Iran's borders, on a plateau between the Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts. The tower...

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Image: Pshaterani | CC BY-SA 4.0

Markar Clock Tower: A Gift Across Oceans

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elnaz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pashutanji Marker was a Zoroastrian of Persian descent living in India, a merchant and philanthropist devoted to the welfare of Iranian Zoroastrians. He funded not just the clock tower but an entire complex: the Markarabad school, gardens, and the plaza that bears his name. Const...

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Image: Elnaz | CC BY-SA 3.0

Markar Clock Tower: Poetry on Every Face

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mohamad.baghipoor, CC BY-SA 4.0. Poems by a local poet named Naser wrap around all four sides of the tower, arranged in two lines meant to be read clockwise. The upper line honors Ferdowsi, the epic poet whose Shahnameh preserved pre-Islamic Persian identity in verse. The lower line celebrates the tower's benefa...

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Image: Mohamad.baghipoor | CC BY-SA 4.0

Markar Clock Tower: Yazd's Quiet Intersection

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Ggia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the Markar Complex includes a museum of Zoroastrian history and culture, sitting alongside the school and the tower in a city where Zoroastrian and Islamic architecture share the skyline. Yazd is one of the few places in Iran where this coexistence remains visible. Fire tem...

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Image: User:Ggia | CC BY-SA 3.0