Iran – A Travel Experience

IRAN – A Travel Experience (2001)

Photos:

https://goo.gl/photos/c1Dsu96H1iKXpLyS7 

“Hello Sir, where you from?”

“Texas”

“Ah, American – Welcome to Iran!”

This exchange took place in a public park in Shiraz, Iran, during the thirteenth day of No Ruz, the Iranian New Year, a traditional feast day.   Every Iranian who knows a couple of words in English will attempt to try them out on any likely foreigner.  The most frequent opening gambit is the usual “where you from?”.  After a few days in Iran, I had grown tired of trying to explain about Malta, and also weary of this usual question, so, in a weak attempt at humour, I gave Texas as my home!  Instead of drawing any ill feeling, it drew a genuine welcome.  Most Iranians, in fact, do not hate Americans, despite the USA being portrayed as the Great Satan by the Ayatollahs.  We were welcomed everywhere we went, and people were always ready to talk, using the little English they know.  Unfortunately I do not speak Farsi - that would really have been something! 

Fort at Shiraz

One of the highlights of our trip to Iran was undoubtedly Arg-é Bam.    This place was the largest (about 180,000 square metres) adobe structure in the world, and is a  UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It is located just outside Bam, a city of around 80,000 people, (before the 2003 earthquake) in south-eastern Iran.  This enormous citadel, situated on the famous Silk Road, was built some time before 500 BC, and used continuously until about 1932, when it was used as an army barracks.   It was then abandoned.  In 1953, the Iranian authorities started to restore the old quarter. The entire building was a large fortress in whose heart the citadel itself was located, but because of the impressive look of the citadel, which forms the highest point, the entire fortress is usually called the Bam Citadel.  It is surrounded by large thick walls about ten metres high and about two km long.  Many of the buildings feature wind-towers or wind-catchers, also seen in the southern part of Pakistan. When we saw it, before the earthquake, most of the buildings were deserted.  The rest were used by maintenance workers, and a few “tea-shops”. 

Tea-shops are ubiquitous in Iran.  Apart from tea, these tea-shops would usually have a few hookahs (hubble-bubble, water-pipe) available for the customers.  So tea-shops are social meeting-places for Iranians, both men and women.  Sometimes the shop would also sell traditional food, such as abgusht, a sort of stew, where the ingredients (meat, potatoes, tomatoes and seasoning) are cooked whole, and then mashed together, in a receptacle, by the customer.  I have tried it, and it’s very good.                                                                                                                                                                                   

The main tea-shop in Arg-é Bam was in the central part, just outside the citadel, and it was owned and run by a middle-aged woman, who knew fairly good English, and was a graduate of Shiraz University, an English-speaking university during the time of the Shah, before Khomeini took over.  We enjoyed a long afternoon tea in this shop, talking to the owner while waiting for the sun to go down in the sky.  With the sun fairly low in the sky, the colours change dramatically, giving the place a reddish hue. 

There were only a few visitors when we were there, and I remember thinking that if this magnificent place was situated elsewhere, it would be over-run with tourists!  I thought that in the future, under different circumstances, many more visitors could appreciate the place.  Unfortunately, this is probably not to be, as 90% of the citadel was destroyed in the December 26, 2003 earthquake that levelled most of the nearby city of Bam, apart from Arg-é Bam itself, killing at least 22,000 people.  President Khatami did say, immediately after the earthquake, that the citadel would be rebuilt, but I do not know whether any progress was achieved. 

Our trip to Iran was during the ten-day mourning period of Muharram.  The festival of Muharram is an important period of mourning in the Shiite branch of Islam, to which most Iranians belong.  It commemorates the tragedy at Karbala, in 680AD, when Hussein bin Ali, a grandson of Muhammad, was martyred.  Actually this “martyrdom” happened when Hussein and his followers, around 200, refused to surrender to a rival, Yazid, and were cut down by about 4000 of his troops.

Mourners, both male and female, congregate together (in separate sections) for sorrowful, poetic recitations performed in memory of Hussein,  lamenting and grieving to the tune of beating drums and chants of "Ya Hussein."  “Passion plays” are also performed, re-enacting the battle of Karbala, and the suffering and death of Hussein at the hands of Yazid.   Processions are normally led by a truck with a loudspeaker set-up.   The “leader”, whom I called the prayer-master, is on this truck, chanting in a deeply sorrowful voice, almost breaking into tears.  The idea is to try to elicit tears from the listeners.  The more sorrowful the chant, the better.  The participants and the crowd follow behind.  When two of these processions meet, the prayer-masters would vie with each other in their chanting, usually resulting in a cacophony. 

Many of the male participants beat themselves on the back, in a stylised and synchronised ritual, with a chain whip called a shallagh.  The men, sometimes young boys, hold one whip, sometimes two, one in each hand, and beat themselves while chanting.  These participants usually wear black shirts and  some put soil on their head, as a sign of mourning. 

Shallagh Seller

These whippings, although painful, draw no blood, at least as far as I could see.  However, in other Shiite communities, such as in Lahore, Pakistan, the men beat themselves on their bare back, and blood literally flies!

Persepolis is another major site in Iran, located about 60 km from Shiraz.   Persepolis was an ancient capital of the Persian Empire, built about 2500 years ago.  The site now consists of the ruins of several colossal buildings, all constructed of dark-grey marble from the adjacent mountain. The stones were laid without mortar, and many of them are still in situ.  Especially striking are the huge pillars, of which a number still stand erect.  There are a large number of reliefs on the walls, many of them of a lion devouring a horse or a bull. 

Close to Perespolis is another site that, if anything, is more fascinating.  Nagsh-e-Rostam consists of four large tombs hewn out of a vertical rock face, the burial sites of Persian kings Darius I, Darius II, Artaxerxes and Xerxes I.  It was the custom at the time for the king to prepare his burial place during his lifetime.  These are really huge tombs, with the bottom of the tomb probably some eight metres up the rock face.  My feeling at the time was amazement at the length that people go to, in order to be remembered.

The city of Isfahan (Esfahan) is also not to be missed on any trip to Iran.  Isfahan was once one of the largest cities in the world. It flourished from the 11^th to the 18^th century, particularly in the 16^th century, when it was the capital of Persia. Even today, the city retains much of its past glory. It is famous for its Islamic architecture, with many beautiful boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, mosques, and minarets. This led to the proverb Esfahan nesf-e jahan: "Esfahan is half the world".   Most impressive is the Emam Khomeini square, a huge open area, with 500 metre-long sides, leading on to the Masjed-e Emam mosque, one of the grandest mosques in Iran. 

I also liked the tea-houses on the arched bridges along the Zayande river, especially the tea-house on the Si-o-Se bridge.

Tea-House on the Si-O-Se Bridge

Underneath the Si-O-Se Bridge

The Ali Sadr caves, about 100 north of Hamadan, are another interesting attraction.  The Ali Sadr is a very large, subterranean cave system, with several huge lakes of fresh clear water, varying from a few metres to about twenty metres deep.  These caves were discovered by a local shepherd about 40 years ago.  They are up to 40 metres high in places, and stalactites of many different shapes hang from the roof.    To see the caves one has to use a paddle-boat, as no motors are allowed.  We were the only foreigners in the caves – the other visitors were mainly Iranian families.

Iran is a safe, interesting and rewarding experience and, as one can imagine, it is not exactly over-run with tourists.  I would recommend it to anyone looking for a holiday with a difference.

Basics:

Accommodation

Fairly good hotels can be found for about Lm4 to Lm5 per double room, depending on the location - Tehran hotels will cost more than twice hotels in Bam.

Transport

Transport is very cheap, with buses working out at about 1cent (Maltese) per km.  This is because of the low fuel prices.  Bus transport is also very efficient, with reservations taken on computer.  Internal flights are also very cheap, with two domestic flights, on Iran Air and Iran Aseman Airlines, costing a total of Lm20 !

Food

You will usually be able to find kebabs and pan (flat bread) almost everywhere.  One of the best meals was a simple one – barbequed meat, with just tomatoes and onions for seasoning, along with pan. 

An Iranian speciality is fruit juice – all sorts of fruit are turned into juice. My favourite was pomegranate juice and carrot juice with ice cream. 

Tickets

Ticket prices for foreigners, at any attraction, such as Persepolis, museums, etc., are normally ten times the price for Iranians.  This can be irritating at times, but there is no way that you can change it.  

Photos:

https://goo.gl/photos/c1Dsu96H1iKXpLyS7 

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