Iran
Travel Report
Arriving in Tehran
Expedition to Mt Damavand
Train to Kerman and on to Bam
Bandar-e Abbas & Hormoz
Shiraz & Persepolis
Yazd
Esfahan
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Travel Notes
Tehran
Shiraz
Tehran 2
Photos
Alborz Mountains
Bam & Hormoz Island
Shiraz & Persepolis
Yazd
Esfahan
Map
Map of Iran
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Travel notes from Shiraz
Hi Everyone
The train from Tehran to Kerman left on time at 19.20 with very little fuss. I shared a compartment with five others, none of whom could speak any English, so I spent most of the journey sleeping. By 09.30 the next morning the train pulled into Kerman, the end of the line. I didn't stop in Kerman and instead took a bus onwards to Bam where I finally arrived at 16.00.
Bam is in the far southwest of the country and is a peaceful, relaxing oasis town, especially when compared to Tehran. I felt like I had arrived in the Garden of Eden after the traffic choked streets of Tehran. I spent three nights here. The main attraction of the town is the old city and citadel, built from mud-brick, which dates back almost 2,000 years. It is a compact city of narrow alleys and winding roads enclosed by impressive city walls and towers. In the northern quarter of the city the citadel towers over the mud-brick houses; it has to be the most impressive mud-brick building I have yet visited on my travels. The city was an important desert staging post along the trade routes from Pakistan and India to the Gulf coast and had a population of approximately 11,000. The town was eventually abandoned in the 19th century.
Bam is also famous for its dates, especially Mozafati dates. The palms surround the city and the harvest was well underway during my short visit. I can therefore confirm that these dates are the finest and most delicious dates I have yet tried. Most of the harvest is exported and I can only imagine that in Europe they would cost a small fortune.
I continued my journey to the Persian Gulf coast and the rather sleazy town of Bandar e Abbas by the Strait of Hormoz. I travelled in a couple of shared taxis as far as Kahnuj from where I found a local bus heading for the coast. The scenery along the way was beautiful and mountainous. As I neared the coast it became hotter and hotter until I arrived in Bandar e Abbas where the heat and humidity was intense. I sweated 24 hours a day, night didn't bring any respite from the heat; it has to be the hottest place I've been to since I visited the coast of Ghana in 2000. There's nothing much to do in this rather unattractive town, but I used it as a base to visit Hormoz Island. There are regular speedboats making the half-hour crossing to this barren, rocky, sleepy little island. I set off early in the morning as by midday it is almost impossible to walk or do anything in the heat.
The island is only 42-sq-km with the small village of Hormoz at the northern tip, which is dominated by the Portuguese Castle, the most impressive colonial fortress in Iran. Built in 1515 the Portuguese used this as a staging base for the sea routes east to Malacca on the Malay peninsular. Today the fortress looks fairly neglected and only a limited amount of restoration work has been carried out. A lot of the structure looks very unsafe, probably the result of earthquakes over the past few hundred years. It is still though, a hauntingly beautiful fortress surrounded on three sides by the sea, where dozens of dhows were anchored, and the village of Hormoz to the south. Scattered about in the dust on the ramparts are hundreds of shards of pottery, many glazed and of high quality, which for me brought to life the people who once inhabited this European outpost.
The next day I left Bandar e Abbas and headed back inland away from the crushing heat of the coast. I booked myself on a bus to Shiraz, which took all day winding through mountain ranges and crossing endless desert plateaus. Shiraz is an important city in Persian culture and was once the capital between 1747-1779. It is here that the famous Persian poets Hafez and Sa'di are buried, their tombs an alternative place of pilgrimage for many Iranians. The city has long been renowned as a place of learning and today still has an important university. I found the city to be very relaxing with wide tree-lined avenues, beautiful gardens and very friendly people. There are many sights to see around the city. I visited the Regents Mosque, built in 1773, which is in the middle of the bazaar. The bazaar itself is impressive with high vaulted brick ceilings, always bustling with people and Koran readings echoing along the narrow alleyways. I visited a couple of madrasehs, Islamic theology colleges, which were like tranquil oases in the middle of the city where I was always warmly welcomed by the mullahs.
Iran as a country and the Iranians as a people I have found to be one of the most hospitable and friendly I have visited. It is not what the western media lead me to expect (BIG surprise!). It is not a land exclusively of beards, turbans and chadors. The country is not as conservative as I thought it would be, countries like Syria and Yemen are far more conservative and religiously observant. In Tehran the city had an almost western feel to it and I never felt that I was in the capital of the Islamic Republic. The majority of people in the country are Shiite Muslims, the minority sect rather than Sunni. Shiites only pray three times a day, two times they pray twice at one sitting to make up the five. You hardly ever notice the call to prayer from the mosques, I have never heard a 05.00 call yet. Also I have never been on a bus that has had to stop so that everyone can pray, which has happened before in many Sunni Muslim countries I have visited.
About 55km outside of Shiraz are the magnificent ruins of Persepolis, the palace city of Darius the Great built in 512BC. This was the centre of one of the greatest Persian empires, which stretched from Egypt in the west to the borders of India to the east. The city was burnt down by Alexander the Great in 330BC and gradually over the centuries became buried under sand and dust until it was all but forgotten. The highlight of Persepolis is the intricate carved bas-reliefs, which adorn almost every wall on the site. They are truly stunning and give us just a glimpse today of what this city was once like during its heyday. There are not any complete buildings left standing today and it is hard to imagine the grandeur of these palaces by looking at the few, out of literally hundreds, of pillars left standing today. Persepolis has to be the highlight of this trip so far.
Regards,
Geoff.
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