Iran: A Persian Odyssey - The Three Wise Men and Kashan

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Fin garden 

We are staying in Kashan for just one night, from where the Three Wise Men are traditionally said to have set off for Bethlehem to visit the infant Jesus. The town is also famous for its ceramics, and the manufacture of expensive silks and carpets for the Safavid Court. Tourists now come here to visit the rather fantastic merchant houses and the impressive Persian Bagh-e Fin or Fin Gardens.

The morning as usual dawns bright and sunny and soon we are in the Fin Gardens – very close to our hotel – and they are really very lovely. We have traditional tea and Iranian biscuits served with style in a garden café there – peaceful and relaxing. The coffee/tea houses here are in a similar style to those experienced on our 2013 visit to South East Turkey at Dana with traditional "beds" to relax upon. There are some very grand houses in Kashan with equally grand furniture shops selling ornate gilded chairs, settees and stair rails and the young people at least are very friendly and chatty and want selfies with us. By contrast an older woman is seen washing clothes in the street side irrigation channel or jub and we pass a motor cycle laden with pomegranates stacked high in lovely wool panniers, the machine being driven by the father with his wife and child clinging on precariously behind him.

Fin garden

Fin Garden

Tea at Fin Garden

The old merchant house we visit -Khaneh Tabatabiyeh - is fantastic – I really enjoyed this. There are many other houses open to the public – plus some interesting looking museums – all tantalising but we have to move on; not before sampling the rose water drink in a nearby shop  – I like it – some find it too sweet. We also saw where two weeks ago thousands gathered in the town for an Imam Hossein commemoration event presumably to mark the beginning of Moharram, and I guess this is held annually.  

Tappeh Sialkh 5000 BCE

We have lunch at the same restaurant as last night – it is very full today but still copes well and the food is just as good. A few of us walk up the road to see from the outside the archaeological site Tappeh Sialkh, dating back to the 5th Millennium BCE, perhaps earlier, with evidence of different very early human settlements and the use of an early potter's wheel. Stained red human remains and the vestiges of their stone, mud and wood dwellings have been found here and outlines of the settlement can still be seen. Some pottery from the site is in the National Museum Tehran which we shall see tomorrow. Sadly we had no time to actually buy tickets to enter the site and view it properly. I think McCabe should consider including this on any future trip.

Khaneh Tabatabiyeh

We are now on the final leg of our journey on the road to Tehran. It is 26 degrees.

Khaneh Tabatabiyeh two doorknockers
for men, and women/children!

The land is agricultural outside Kashan, and it is mostly rose fields, but there are also many pomegranate vendors in the lay bys as we leave the town. The landscape is flat, and it soon becomes quite arid as far as we can see to the east, with mountains to the west. There are golden domed mosques in a local village, and many more qanats are visible on the plain in the distant, evidence of the ancient water irrigation system below. I see the first sign of poly tunnel cultivation and some very curious rock formations. The atmosphere is getting murkier – with smog perhaps? It seems quite cloudy and we have clearly left behind the beautiful deep blue skies of the south.

Khaneh Tabatabiyeh

This is the least interesting leg of our drive and the motorway is not the smoothest of surfaces. We pass through an area of low mountains on each side but are soon back on the plain. Qom is 35 km away – there are large flocks of goats being herded at the side of the road, with much arable farming activity as well, more pomegranate bushes, some very sophisticated irrigation channels, sweet corn fields, old tractors and other fairly basic and old farm implements along with stacked straw bales seen in farm compounds – also I fear much evidence of factory farming. There is a herd of camels at the side of the motorway – I just manage to catch a fleeting photo!

five door room in Khaneh Tabatabiyeh

The traffic now is the busiest we have seen it. Qom looks huge and the atmosphere murky. It is the second most sacred place in Iran after Mashhad. Pilgrims and tourists alike flock here to see the shrine of Fatima sister of the eighth imam, Imam Reza, who died here in 816CE. The golden dome and twin minarets are said to dominate the skyline but I do not see them from the coach and we are passing by straight on to Tehran.

Soon we stop at a huge shopping mall for a comfort break – Adidas outlet store is prominent as we drive into the car park – a family have settled down in a marked parking bay for their picnic – the usual rug on the ground – shoes on its perimeter – food spread out! Imagine that in the UK at Ikea! There is a sparkling 1950s Chevrolet in the entrance foyer attracting a great deal of interest. 

The mall is very grand – with plenty of shops and quite the poshest loos on the whole trip – spotless and we feel even our footprints are being dusted away behind us! We have a picnic set up by the coach before moving on – the driver cutting up a huge water melon to share amongst us. It’s still 26 degrees outside - very pleasantly warm but murky. The air now is noticeably polluted and not nice at all.  

Pottery Kashan

rose water still Kashan

typical smart villa in Kashan

All the tour buses are equipped with a luggage hold, a hold where the driver can sleep as necessary, a hold for the picnic kit, including a gas stove – one driver was seen to light this stove within the hold itself (!). 

Camels!

We are on the last leg of the journey to Tehran. The view is of desert all around us – with the huge salt lake visible to the east. I find the pollution tough on my chest, just recovering as I am from a very bad cold and cough. I feel the same gloom approaching Tehran as I felt on our way into Athens last year. I am not comfortable in large cities – although found Athens surprisingly agreeable. I hope the same applies for Tehran.  

The motorway here has many break down trucks along the way, waiting for their summonses to help cars in need. Our first sign of the city is the airport and the traffic now is pretty bad – it takes quite a while to get through it to our hotel.

We were going to see the Ayatollah Khomeini monument tonight – but we are running late and it will be very busy being Friday. So we pass it by and we will see it on the way to the airport on Sunday instead.  

our water melon picnic

We eat in the hotel in Tehran- the meal is poor for us all, the usual salads, kebabs, (the meat is reconstituted) and some very uninspiring vegetables and chips for me. The crème caramel is the highlight - the Iranian creme caramel rarely disappoints my sweet tooth! 

1950s Chevrolet at Tehran shopping mall

The hotel fortunately has good triple glazing as I cannot hear the dreadful traffic from the street far below. Opening the window, I am hit in equal measure by the smell and the noise. I shut it again quickly. The room is large, clean comfortable and chintzy with the usual Mecca sign in the corner of the ceiling. Everything under the sun is supplied in the basket of goodies in the bathroom – except shower gel which I need. No tea and coffee facilities in the room - surprising perhaps for a hotel of this calibre but there is 24 hour coffee available in the foyer apparently but I didn’t test this.  

curious rock formation road to Tehran

Tomorrow we have a full day in Tehran - with even more treasures to see before we have to think about travelling home.

Iran: A Persian Odyssey - a day in Yazd

chadors for sale in bazaar

Our guide tells us that Yazd is one of Iran's wealthier towns. Certainly we see many big quality houses as we drive through. Much new building is going on outside the old historic centre and he tells us that saunas and jacuzzis are becoming increasingly popular. And now Yazd is a stop on the main railway line between Tehran and Kerman – a journey of nearly 1000 km. Apparently 10 years ago most people used bicycles to get around. Now they own cars - and there are thousands of motor bikes on the roads, which seem to follow their own traffic rules! Few seem to have lights on at night, lane discipline seems non-existent, all-in-all it seems a free for all from my high vantage point in the coach. It all seems very busy and not pedestrian friendly. Far more women seem to be in black chadors here than in Shiraz - a very conventional society.

abandoned bicycle shop in bazaar!

Backpacking is apparently becoming popular among local Iranians because of the high cost of travel between towns by public transport.

We pass a playground where the schoolgirls are all in black – waving black flags – I suspect this is part of their Moharram ceremonies - the commemoration of the death of the third imam Hossein, this year being held during the month of October. Yazd is the centre of these celebrations in Iran.

Much of the wealth in Yazd has come from pistachio and copper exports as well as from tourism and other fruit and vegetable. The people here are also merchants – importing/exporting with India and China. Also pilgrims stop here overnight on their way north to the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad. And the soil in the surrounding countryside is good for the manufacture of tiles and bricks.

the Towers of silence site

 

on the top of the Tower - note central pit

the journey up to the Tower of Silence

Our first stop of the day is at the Zoroastrian Towers of Silence (dakhmeh) – these are simply fantastic! And have the best WCs so far! (male readers may find my obsession with loos somewhat bizarre - but it has to be said that for some ladies on these trips the state of some of the traditional squats became a bit of an issue - it's much easier for you men!!) The energetic among us climb to the top of the lower tower, time not permitting a trip to the other one. At the top we reach the stone platform where until quite recently the deceased Zoroastrians would be left to the vultures and natural decay. We see the central pit or drain which would have been filled with sand, charcoal and phosphorus. This is all to prevent pollution of the earth, recognising the sanctity of earth, fire, air and water. It is important to remember that the area should be treated with the same respect which we should give to all religious and sacred spaces. Zoroastrians are now buried in a concrete chamber in the modern cemetery we can see below us - again to avoid pollution of the earth. 

Below the towers we explore the various buildings, including a water cistern with two wind towers or badgirs (see below), a mourning room, and mortuary preparation area. 

view from top of one of the Towers - modern cemetery on left in background

the faravahar zoroastrianism symbol

a script from the Yasna Zoroastrianism text

the sacred zoroastrianism flame
in Yazd

We then make our way to the Zoroastrian Fire Temple (Ateshkadeh) – the wood used to keep the sacred fire continually burning - it has been alight without interruption since 470 CE if not before - is usually walnut. It is all shielded by a glass screen to prevent pollution from our breath. Here there is a very interesting Zoroastrian museum as well – but we have woefully little time to see all that it has to offer and resort to taking lots of photos to study later – the joys of digital photography. We are reminded that when Jews went into exile this is the religion they would have met.

(more information on Zoroastrianism including what the symbol represents)

The Wind Tower, wind catcher or badgir we visit next has 4 towers - with a map of Iran set out in the paving alongside. These constructions are very clever. 

four tower badgir and water cistern with map of Iran

The badgirs rely on their design to draw and funnel a breeze into the tower for cooling purposes - this one is associated with a water cistern. Others are on residences - and may incorporate a pool or fountain below to further cool the air before it is distributed throughout the rooms - an effective and much cheaper device than the preferred modern air conditioning. They are also 

Next we see the Façade - it looks like a mosque - but it is not. Its foundations are 15th century, but it was built in the 19th century, as a viewing platform for city parades, for example at the annual Moharram ceremony. 

the Facade with Nakhl to the right

By the side of the façade stands a huge wooden Nakhl - this looks like a giant palm leaf - and during the Moharram ceremony it is covered in black and carried by 70 or so strong young men. It must be exceedingly heavy. We are to see quite a few of these, in various sizes, as we travel through the country.

We walk through a square with a large expanse of water in the middle - past some sweet shops - to the Water Museum - This is an excellent and fascinating display of the history of the water irrigation and supply systems of the area - with English translations on the captions. You will never take water for granted again after visiting this I promise.

A walk through the bazaar brings us to lunch. As we go past all the various stalls we cannot help noticing evidence of greater wealth here than in Shiraz - the quality and value of goods in the bazaar, the pots and pans, the children's furniture, all evident - and the cycle shop which has gone out of business.

Lunch is at the Silk Road Restaurant – with a good choice of drinks, in an informal and relaxed atmosphere – but the salad buffet was very basic and tired and the bread was stale. There was however a good veggie aubergine dish – and camel meat for the others! 

intricate cut tiling work in Friday Mosque

wonderful tiling of the mirab in the Friday
mosque

The Friday mosque - Masjed-e Jame - is our next port of call, founded originally 1119, over a ruined Sassanid fire temple. The 1375 mihrab is magnificent. 

After an ice cream stop we go back to our hotel for the hottest part of the day – the whole town virtually shuts down as people shut up shop and go home for siestas.

Our hotel has a traditional tea lounge where some of us enjoy the refreshment on offer. 

Suitably rested and ready for our supper, we first call by the Bagh-e Dolat Abad a garden with the tallest badgir in the world at 33m, at the former governor's pavilion. This tower collapsed in the 1960s and was rebuilt. We marvel at the coloured glass and the clever wind ventilation system in the small two storey restored pavilion which is open to the public - and can definitely feel the cool breeze created from the badgir. The gardens are beautiful - even more so as the light fails and the spotlighting at the pavilion changes through different colours - red, green, blue…

the 33m tallest badgir in the world

So on to supper at the Malek-o Tojjar Mehr Hotel  – it is quite a challenge to find through the bazaar on foot - you need a guide or a good map! There was no veggie option – only mushroom and pepper stir fry from the vegetable range – the salad was uninteresting – we didn’t like the cinnamon tea very much – bread not the freshest and others didn’t rate the meat dishes highly. But it was a lovely big atmospheric room in a traditional hotel. 

the wind funneling mechanism in roof of badgir

coloured glass window at Bagh-e
Dolat Abad

It's been a long day - with still so much to see ... tomorrow we are off to Esfahan - surely the most beautiful city in the world - and we enjoy watching traditional pottery making and carpet weaving along the way - with a chance to buy some lovely souvenirs to take home.

Iran: A Persian Odyssey - the road to Yazd

ceiling at the Saadi Tomb

We are leaving Shiraz today and have a long journey to Yazd - but first we stop on the outskirts of Shiraz to visit the Tomb of Muslah al-Din Saadi set in its own lovely gardens.

Saadi poetry panel from The Rose Garden

Our guide has a beautiful singing voice and treats us to his interpretation of some of the poet's verses which are portrayed in colourful tiles on the walls in the mausoleum. One is a panel of prose from Golestan or The Rose Garden, written in 1257, one of Saadi's major poetic works. The Rose Garden is a collection of stories and wisdom in eight chapters, with each section representing a flower of the garden. It is still very popular among Iranians and our guide will readily quote and explain passages from the poem which is full of moral guidance.  

the gardens at the Saadi Tomb

Another popular quote from the poet, inspired by his own unhappy marriage, goes thus: "A good wife comes with a good man to dwell - she soon converts his earthly heaven to hell."

There is a man meditating by a pool in the grounds - it is all very peaceful and I would have liked time there myself to savour the peace and quiet.

The loos here are modern and clean - a rare treat here!

We now have a three hour drive to our restaurant for lunch on the way to Yazd - passing Persepolis on the way.

Seat belts are only compulsory here on the main roads out of town and we are told there are police checks on this. Our coach stops to pay a toll, due also from lorries, but from which the cars seem exempt. We have a fascinating lecture on education through Iranian history, from c. 550 BC onwards, to while away the journey - but I cannot take my eyes away from the scenes which unfold through the window on our way - there are so many interesting sights. We follow the 55N towards Esfahan and Tehran but turn off later to the east at Surmaq towards Yazd.

scenery on road to Yazd

It's 24 degrees outside - pleasantly warm for me given the dry heat - with none of the humidity that often makes UK summer heat so unpleasant. The message scrolling across the information bar at the front of the coach includes a safety message about seat belts and a blessing for our journey in the name of Muhammed - also reminding us that bottled water is freely available in the fridge by the back door. We need to drink plenty to avoid dehydration.

A village in the distance prominently flies a huge black flag - we see many of these on our journey - they are marking the mourning month of Moharram, a full 28 days each year commemorating the tragic death of the third Imam, Hossein. This year it covers the month of October - the dates change annually. 

There are still many nomadic settlements dotted around near the road - no doubt they are here to help with the vegetable harvesting. A few rather grand villas in their own green compounds are in stark contrast to the dusty looking sandy coloured stone villages we pass and the nomads' tented settlements.

marble quarry

We're now on a high plain - with the road following the course of a dried out river for some time. There are many concrete irrigation channels here set into the fields - with sluice gate controls - perhaps fed by the new controversial Sivand dam nearby (see 5th December post).

There are a few donkeys - not so common in this part of the world - and most farm compounds seem to have a collection of old tractors and combine harvesters and other farm implements. We still climb, and come above the agricultural zone into a rocky terrain criss-crossed with rough side roads and tracks.

The mountains here are rich in minerals and there is much quarrying activity. We pass a very large marble mine for which the region is famous - as reflected in the wonderful and extensive marble tiling and walls and floors we see in many of the buildings we visit.

At midday we arrive at our turn off towards Yazd, stopping soon for a loo break by a rather magnificent mosque in a small village. 

fresh bread on the bus

Ali buys some fabulous fresh bread in the local shop and we tear and share it on the coach. It is lovely. It is still an hour before lunch and we welcome the stop and the refreshments. We continue to drive further north west and higher into the mountains. The terrain becomes increasingly bleak and barren and villages are few and far between here. We are now 195 km from Shiraz. For a long while we drive through very arid scrubland - but multicoloured rock faces look rich with minerals - looking like the multi spice "cakes" for sale in the spice shops in the Esfahan bazaar we will visit later in the week. A magnificent jagged mountain chain looms out of the haze of dust and heat on our left. The road is very long and straight ahead of us.

A lonely man is litter picking into a large yellow sack seemingly a long way from anywhere. I can only guess that he is finding something with a recyclable value.

snow melt area in otherwise barren landscape

There is much snow up in this area in the winter and the snow melt catchment areas show green and lush, where many fruit trees are cultivated - peach, mango, cherry, pomegranate, grapes, almonds, apples … Otherwise the area is quite barren.

Hunters from Shiraz have decimated the wild life in this area and the countryside to our left is now designated a National Park.

We stop to eat somewhere on the road around Faragheh to Abarkuh but I am not sure where. 

Although the restaurant has a very unprepossessing interior and is geared for tour groups, locals also eat here and the food was very good, the service efficient and friendly. And they made me a lovely veggie dish of aubergine and potato stew, although from later experiences perhaps they just fished the meat out of it! Veggies beware! The low point of the meal was the pre-packaged plastic container of cabbage salad to start - very boring.

mosque along the way

There is another beautiful mosque in the middle of nowhere - 

inside the icetower

the icetower at Abarkuh

and we stop to see the ice tower in Abarkuh. These are large fire -brick domed constructions set deep into the ground and formerly used for ice storage, a version of our own English country estate icehouses. 

There are old caravanserai (inns with central courtyards built for travellers or caravans) along the route here approximately 30 km apart - to facilitate the change of horses and availability of refreshments for the postal service or Royal Road across the country which was introduced by Darius the Great - and was the world's first postal service! It later became part of the Silk Road. 

We drive through pistachio country and see many small pistachio tree plantations. 

Our guide tells us that the road to Yazd attracts camels out of the cold desert at night to the tarmac which has been warmed during the day and retains its heat. For this reason it can be very hazardous to drive at night - sand storms are another hazard.

The small bushes or Camel Thorn here are very slow growing, stabilise the sand, and can be 200 - 300 years old.

We are now going through miles of desert and its totally barren. At Dehshir we turn left towards Taft and approach a mountain range. 

picnic preparations

Soon we stop at the side of the road for another welcome picnic - the driver and guide Ali are really good at putting on these impromptu refreshment stops. They put up table and stools and a paper table cloth, serve coffee and tea from huge flasks filled up by the last hotel, and invariably supply delicious local cake and biscuit delicacies which they have bought along the way. Fabulous. Here we have a lovely mountain view but the road is fast, the litter horrible! Litter is a very real problem all along the open roads; a sad contrast with the pristine cleanliness of the towns and cities.

in the Lion Mountains

It's 4.30 and the sun is getting low in the sky. We climb up into the mountain range - the Lion Mountains - and my ears pop as we descend again - the sun makes gorgeous colours in the mountains as it sets. There are old Zoroastrian villages to the west of the road - they still have their fire towers and fire festivals take place every year in January apparently. 

Eagle Rock

The Lion Mountains separate Yazd from the scorching hot central desert where the temperature can climb into the 70s, so they are essential to keep Yazd significantly cooler, albeit still up to 50 degrees in the height of summer. The locals tend to have small houses here in the mountains to escape the worst of the summer temperatures. This is a big pomegranate and walnut growing area, with some saffron also. Chicken in walnut sauce is a popular dish here. The wildlife here is protected - wildgoats (I saw a small herd on the mountain side), hyena, wolves, foxes, cheetahs, vultures.

We pass Eagle Rock - some imagination is needed! And the mountain range is now very dramatic in the setting sun. The lights of Yazd appear in the distant haze and soon we are at our hotel. Yazd is at an altitude of 1125m and 677 km to Tehran.

for more on the poet Saadi see http://www.ircv.org/download/Sample_Beyond_Poetry.pdf and 

http://www.iranchamber.com/literature/saadi/books/golestan_saadi.pdf 

traditional restaurant in Yazd

traditional restaurant in Yazd

 We enjoy our evening meal in a traditional restaurant in Yazd -  the Fahadan Mehr Hotel Restaurant - we are taken by coach - our poor driver after such a long day already - he is a hero! There is a parrot to welcome us!