Iran: Shiraz photos

The first album of photos taken last week in Shiraz in Iran is here.

Iran: Shiraz to Isfahan with an unexpected detour

Saturday Part 2
We went out in the pouring rain to visit the castle called Arg-e Karim Khan which was built in the mid-1700s. The castle has high walls and 4x14m high watch towers. One of these towers has a “Pisa” style lean to it as its started subsiding into the area that was once the castle bathhouse. The castle was used as a prison during the reign of the Shah. Inside the castle walls is a large courtyard now planted with orange trees. In one of the buildings is a very interesting display of photos of Shiraz over the past 100 years. We went back to the hotel to collect our bags and have a final coffee with Mr Abbas before we went to the airport for our flight to Isfahan. The tv in the foyer was showing local soccer being played in a heavy snowfall and the receptionist told us that the game was being played in Isfahan. Mr Abbas rang the airport, was told that flights to Isfahan were unaffected so we headed out.

Shiraz airport is modern, clean. We checked in our bags for our flight which was bound for Tehran with a stop in Isfahan where we'd be getting off. We farewelled Mr Abbas who had by this stage adopted Jess as his 'daughter'. Once on the plane our departure was delayed as a big pow-wow took place between the pilots, the cabin crew, a couple of guys in vizi vests and another mystery guy in his late 20s who was trying to look normal while eyeballing all the passengers – even the children. Mystery Man wore the same style of jacket (lab coat meets safari suit) favoured by Mr Ahmadinejad. We eventually took off and Mystery Man sat in one of the crew jump seats at the front of the plane like a teacher watching errant students. As soon as we were at altitude Mystery Man stood up and continued to watch the passengers like a hawk. After 30 minutes we were served a meal of a bread roll containing what appeared to be a cold chicken McNugget together 1.5 slices of pickle per roll, a faux Bounty Bar called a Nori and a box of juice. Together with the meal came the captain's announcement that cabin crew should take their seats for landing in Isfahan, the announcement was made in English.

Nothing happened.

We didn't descend we just kept on going....and going. Eventually there was a long announcement in Farsi, but none of the other passengers seemed overly concerned by its contents. The cabin crew got out of their seats and wandered round collecting rubbish. Colin asked one of the crew whether we were overflying Isfahan and she happily answered “Oh yes, that's what the announcement was saying. Isfahan airport's closed and the plane's landing in Tehran.” She said we'd probably wait there 5 or 6 hours and then fly back to Isfahan. On landing, all the Tehran passengers left the plane while the Isfahan-bound crowd, which was nearly ½ the plane, stayed on board. Mystery Man had disappeared by this time. After a while an announcment was made in Farsi and all the Iranian passengers got up from their seats, hauled their luggage out of the overhead lockers and stood in the aisle waiting. After 5 minutes or so, another announcement was made in Farsi which resulted in the Iranian passengers putting their luggage back into the overhead lockers and sitting down again. After a further 45 minutes we were ushered off the plane. Thankfully Colin met a helpful Tehrani who from that point translated all the announcements. We got into an airport bus and were deposited at the terminal where we were hustled into a huge room with dozens of 2 and 3 seater sofas lined up in rows. This was to be our home for however long it took until Isfahan airport reopened, we knew by this stage that the runway there was frozen. The crowd of irate passengers gathered round the only Iran Air employee who ventured into view and the volume rose steadily. Long story short, many of the passengers, us included, decided to go to the bus station to catch a scheduled long haul coach from Tehran to Isfahan. The last coach left at 2am and that's the one we wanted to get. We got into a taxi with another friendly Irani who had been on the same flight. Our 3 suitcases had been put on the taxi roof and were held by a single bungy cord (occi strap for Aussies). There were no seatbelts and unfortunately we had Death's Personal Driver at the wheel....now back when I was young and stupid I've been in cars where the drivers have been drunk as a skunk but every one of them has driven better than this guy...he was all over the road, cut off cars and trucks with impunity, missed motorbikes by inches, he hit the kerb while cutting across 4 lanes on the freeway, he didn't know where the gears were, almost into the side of a huge truck, I could go on and on without mentioning how he cut off a police car and then tooting his horn at the them. We arrived safely at the bus station which was a miracle....I was so tempted to fall on my knees and kiss the ground, but we had no time. The bus station is high volume chaos; there are bus company touts yelling at potential passengers, passengers yelling at taxi drivers, which is what our friendly Irani taxi mate was doing, cars unloading people, suitcases everywhere. Our Iranian friend found the bus to Isfahan and we all threw our bags into the luggage compartment. The compartment was also open on the other side so we just hoped that our bags didn't disappear as soon as we put them in. Jess and I were given the front two seats, as we were ladies travelling together, Colin was behind us. All the while the bus tout for our bus was on the bus-off the bus -yelling-pointing-yelling some more, whew this boy was wired! Eventually the bus left at about 2:30am fully loaded including some Army guys who seemed to be having a low level stoush with some of the other passengers in the back of the bus but it was all very refined up in the ladies department. The girls in the seat opposite us asked for a Persian soap opera dvd to be played and then promptly went to sleep for the rest of the trip. The trip went smoothly, the driver knew what he was doing and was a real pro, bless his little Turkish cotton socks. There were lots of stops for toll roads and it as we got further away from Tehran the outside temperature started dropping. At one point we were driving through areas covered with thick snow. How the guys who were travelling in the compartment with the luggage managed I don't know......oh, didn't I mention them?

We arrived in Isfahan at 7am, retrieved our suitcases from the guys in the luggage compartment and were met by our guide Mr Zanadi. He took us to our hotel and we all hit the sack for a couple of hours.

One day late, but hello Isfahan....the city a French poet said is “...half the world.”

Iran: Shiraz Day 2 and 3

Friday
We started the day by visiting Bagh-e Eram (Eram Gardens) which are several hundred years old and best known for the stand of cypress trees growing there. The gardens are now operated by Shiraz University and are very pretty even in November which is the beginning of winter. The garden is famous for its extensive rose gardens which bloom in March. In the centre of the gardens is a 1700s palace called Kakh-e Eram which has richly tiled frescos on the exterior walls. On the way out of the garden we saw a group of uni students from Shiraz University pharmacy department, having their graduation photo taken. In no time, the three of us were in the graduation photo too.
Next stop was the Afif Abad garden which is run by the military and there seemed to be more soldiers than gardeners around. There's something odd about restful walkways of greenery that lead to displays of tanks and artillery. The palace in the garden now houses an extensive display of military hardware from ancient times. There is a smaller building whose interior walls are tiled with depictions of heroic deeds from Persian mythology, Rostum killing various devils and monsters. Our guide started reciting a poem by Fedosi which tells one of the stories and straight away another visitor joined in. The poetry is regarded as a national treasure and this bore out what Abbas had said, that everyone knows the poems.
From the gardens we moved to Khan-e Zinat ol-Molk an 18th century house named after its female owner. The house now contains a wax museum depicting ancient kings and ceremonies, famous poets from the region and a section of models of famous local mullahs. One model was of a famous local pilot who was killed in the Iran-Iraq war and who had been a close boyhood friend of Abbas our guide.
Just a couple of minutes drive away, a couple of terrifying, gasp inducing minutes, is the 19th century mosque of Nair ol Molk. On the large wooden doors at the entrance to the mosque there are two different shaped door knockers, one for each sex. As the knockers each give a different sound, the people inside the mosque knew whether to send a woman or a man to open the door. The coloured tiled interior is stunning with many shades of blue used. Some show pictures of European buildings including churches and there were many showing flowers including roses with several shades of pink in the tiles. Wooden inserts the size of bricks were inserted during the construction of the walls, these inserts give flexibility during earthquakes. To one side of the courtyard is the winter prayer hall with beautiful stained glass windows and further inside is the Gav Cha (cow well) named because cows were used to pull water up from the well there. On the other side of the courtyard is the summer prayer hall which had more beautiful tile work and was interesting because it has no minbar (pulpit). The curator said that in the 20 years he'd been at the mosque there had never been a minbar and the mullah sits on a chair to deliver his sermon.
In the afternoon we left Jessica at the hotel to catch up on some sleep while we went with Abbas to the Iran Travel Industry Trade Show at an exhibition centre on the outskirts of Shiraz. The show was held in 3 huge exhibition halls filled with displays by travel companies, some countries, companies touting medical tourism and others that specialised in religious travel to the many shrines in Iran. We watched a performance by nomadic musicians from the Fars region of Iran while eating ashe reshte, a thick soup with lentils and meat which was the perfect warm up as the rain was pelting down again and it was getting cold.
At the exhibition like everywhere else we've been, people were very friendly, people asked to have their photos taken with us, asked where we were from. Occasionally a group of teenage girls would come up to us and the bravest would nervously say 'hi' to me. When I said 'hi' back, they'd all burst into fits of giggles.

Saturday
Today has been declared as Eid-e Ghorban (Eid al Adha), despite it being expected yesterday. As a result the bazaar is shut today. We started the day with a trip to Hafez' tomb. Hafez is a famous Iranian poet born in Shiraz in 1324. His collection of poems known as 'Divan-e Hafez' and is considered to be a must have in Iranian homes. Iranians say that all homes should have two things; the Quran and Hafez. His poems are almost mystical in content, and its a ritual when deciding on a future action to open Hafez's poem at a random place and study the verse revealed. The tomb is set under a rotunda in the middle of a rose garden and is a popular visiting place for families. Recitations of Hafez' poems are broadcast over the garden's PA system. On the street outside the grounds, several men stand carrying boxesof extracts from Hafez' poems in one hand and a budgie in the other. Upon payment of 5,000 riyals ($5) the budgie will select a random verse from the box with its beak and this verse will deal with your future.
The next stop was the tomb of Sa'di another famous Shirazi poet whose verses are still quoted in conversation today. His tomb is in a pavilion surrounded by gardens. The pavilion walls are inlaid with tiles showing his most famous verses. The tomb itself is made from a single piece of alabaster. Next to the pavilion is an underground fishpond full of trout which is surrounded by au underground tea house with an attractive domed ceiling covered in tilework. We stopped there for a quick cuppa and several families came up to us to ask where we were from, what we thought of Iran and what we'd seen.
This afternoon we're visiting the citadel and then making our way to Shiraz airport for a quick 30 minute flight to Esfahan.

Iran: I said I'd be back

...it took 31 years but here I am back in Iran. Its wonderful to be here with my husband and my beautiful daughter.
We left Sharjah at 5pm for the flight to Shiraz in Iran which takes a bit over an hour. The first thing we saw in Shiraz airport was a sign depicting a pair of non-sex specific cartoon characters hugging with a big “banned” symbol across it. Our driver/guide, Abbas, met us once we cleared customs and took us to our hotel. The trip took about 40 minutes and it quickly became apparent why Iran has the highest rate of road deaths in the world, in 2006 nearly 28,000!
Today we visited Pasargardae the ruins of a city started by Cyrus the Great in 546BC. The main sight to see is the tomb of Cyrus himself, a relatively stark stone mausoleum on 6 raised stone steps, the tomb was once surrounded by gardens but these are long gone.
From Pasargardae we went on to the rock tombs at Naqsh-e Rostum. There are 4 tombs (Darius I and II, Xerxes and Artaxerxes) cut out of the cliff way above the ground, each tomb has impressive stone reliefs engraved below it. As the kings at that time were Zoroastrian, their bodies were initially put on Towers of Silence to be picked clean by birds of prey, after that the bones were moved into the rock tombs. Opposite the tombs is a small building called the Kaba Zartosht, its purpose is still being debated, maybe it was a fire temple or a treasury.
Next stop was Persepolis. The complex at Persepolis covers 12 hectares and at its peak contained 14 separate palaces. Its built on a huge stone platform at the foot of what's known as Mt Mercy. Construction started in about 518BC under the direction of Darius I. Visitors enter up the majestic Grand Staircase. Despite there being 111 steps it seems an easy climb as the height of the steps is less than their width. Its thought the stairs were designed this way so that 4 footed animals could be brought up the stairs to be presented to the king and also so important visitors could glide up the stairs in their flowing long gowns (that's blokes I'm talking about here) without the risk of tripping over.
At the top of the stairs is the Gate of All Lands, two huge stone blocks with bull shaped statues. The bulls have wings and human heads. All visitors passed through this gate before entering the palace complex. There's a lot of graffiti on the stone bases of the statues including that of Stanley of the NY Herald-Tribune, who later became famous for saying: “Dr Livingstone I presume.” Inside the complex the Apadana audience hall is the largest of all the buildings. The building was constructed in around 515BC and continued in use for nearly 200 years. All the walls in the complex were covered with bas relief figures, many showing the numerous nations that made up the Persian empire at that time. Persepolis was destroyed by Alexander the Great's troops one December night in 330BC. Unfortunately it poured with rain the whole time we were there, but rain is a novelty after Dubai, so it didn't detract from the magnificence of the ruins.
I took lots of photos and I'll upload them to Smugmug when I get back to Dubai.