In the past, travelers on routes needed a place to rest and feed their animals (mainly horses and camels). So, a building with special rooms, water pool and water reservoir were constructed.

Based on the area, mountain or desert, the materials used for construction were either stone or mud and mud brick while wood was also used in both.

There were three types of caravansarai: on the route, near the city walls and inside the city. The first was in deserts or in the mountains just on the routes. The second was for caravan heavy loads so that the representative of the group entered the city, talked to the merchants, concluded contracts or deals and then the loads were little by little carried into the city shops.

We must remember that the cities, especially deserted cities had a wall around in the past, just as Kerman had. So, the passages inside such cities were not wide enough for a caravan with lots of animals carrying heavy loads to pass through. therefore, they had to wait just in a place out of the city.

The caravansarais inside the city were used to accommodate merchants, talks and deals, and lots of other exchanges.

In Kerman area, there are two types of caravansarais left and tourists can visit them. As Kerman was a transit spot on the ancient silk route, caravans from China, India and Europe stopped here, did their negotiations and deals and finally some left for China and India, some for Persian Gulf and some for north-west and Europe.

There are plenty of inside-city caravansarais in Kerman some of them still active and named after the type of merchants met for deals, for example, Hindu caravansarai near Ganjali Khan historical complex.

Also, there are two caravansarais on the desert routs in lut desert which are really spectacular. We must not forget that Zeinodin caravansarai on the road to Yazd was built under the order of Zeinodin Ganjali Khan the Safavid ruler of Kerman. Kerman was very large in the past and its borders reached Persian Gulf, India and Isfahan.

• Visiting the two deserted caravansarais is included in our tours of kalut.