Spread Your Wings
Jafar's Blue Tiles, Iran
S1 • E5 Mar 24, 1978
Jafar Eskarbaksh is fourteen years old. During his school break, he learns how to make the special blue tiles that are needed to restore the ancient dome of Oljaytu Mausoleum, in the North-West desert of Iran. The 672-year-old tomb stands in the centre of Jafar’s village of Soltaniyeh. The art and chemistry of making the special blue glazes that seem to shimmer in the desert light was lost for many years.