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Published: October 12th 2008
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Since Tehran we have been travelling west across Iran . Everywhere we go the people are wonderful, usually greeting us with 'Welcome to Iran'. I have had a man stop the traffic for me and a family invite me to their home in Northern Iran if I am in the area!
After Tehran (which was fantastic) we stopped in Yadz. Yadz is one of the oldest regions in Iran and we spent the day following the walking tour around the old city. Lots of little laneways so we pretty much spent the day getting lost, finding ourselves again and then getting lost again. It was a very pretty little city and I really enjoyed our time there.
After Yadz we headed to Persepolis - which is the ruins of an Ancient City ruled by Darius the 1st. Alexander the Great also visited the region. I loved Persepolis last time I was in Iran so I was interested to see if much had changed over the past 11 years. The place was pretty similar. Last time we were there, there we no tourists and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. This time there were a lot of
Iranian tourists so it was reasonably busy, but nowhere near as busy as it would be if it was in Europe. There were a lot more guards around so we couldn't really jump on the sculptures like we did last time - which is probably a good thing! We camped in the police compound in the carpark. We had an awesome view of the site through the night. There were also lots of people from the local town coming out for a picnic in the carpark which was great to see.
After Persepolis we headed into Shiraz - yep well know for the red wine in the past .... but not a drop in sight now. Once again Shiraz was a great place to visit - over a million people live there - and it is known for its gardens and as a pilgrimage site to the tomb of the poet Hafez. I had a really good day cruising around Shiraz as last time we were there we pretty much just stopped for lunch.
After a 10hr drive we arrived in Esfahan on Friday. Yesterday we went for a tour of the city and then today we are
having a day to take things in. Esfahan is a beautiful place. The main part is centred around the Imman Square (the second largest square in the world... which was once a polo field) We visited the Chehel Sotun Palace, the Armenian Cathedral, the Jameh Mosque as well as the Shaking Minarets (they shake one minaret every hour on the hour and the other one shakes as well ... a bit underwhelming!) and the Zoastrian Fire Temple. It is just a great place to be! I am about to head back into the bazaar around Imman Square.
From here we have two drive days heading for Tabriz and then it is across the border to Dogybayzit in Turkey.
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