Blogs from Middle East - page 1232

Starting early morning we are departing Esfahan which I feel is not a moment too soon. We are looking at a drive of roughly 400 km to reach Tehran. First we will be going north to Kashan, then northwest to Qom before reaching Tehran in the evening. We make an early stop in a small town near Esfahan to look at the local mosque, and Mr. Bergman buys yet another little souvenir in spite of the protests of his wife. The next stop is a slight detour from the route to Kashan via the village Natanz. This name is nowadays (2005) closely associated with the Iranian uranium enrichment program, but to us it is simply the home village of Mr. Hoseyn, and when he invites us to have some tea at his mother's place we are ... read more

Our first destination is the most obvious of the local tourist traps, the gigantic Naqsh-e-Jahan Square. A roughly 500 meter long plaza surrounded by a slew of interesting buildings, dominated by the imposing Imam Hoseyn Mosque (a.k.a. Abbasi Jame Mosque) to the south, the smaller and more exquisite Sheikh Lotf Ol-lah Mosque to the east and the cryptically christened Ali Qapoo Edifice, a palace-like structure built under Shah Abbas I as a place for his audiences to the west. Most of the square is occupied by a big park with fountains, and tourist minded carriages are making their way around the square in circular patterns. The Grand Imam Hoseyn Mosque with its 52 meter tall dome looks great, its decorated walls shimmering in the morning light, but as with many mosques its disposition makes photography very ... read more

Time to go sightseeing the desert again. We leave Kerman early morning heading northwest for Yazd province and the capital Yazd. Today's route goes deep into the plains and we will not be encountering very many towns along the road. The only major town we will pass through is Rafsanjan, the hometown and stronghold of course of the previous president Rafsanjani. We pick up some pistachios from a merchant selling them by the roadside from the trunk of his car. From then on it is a straight road into the desert, a route which seems to be quite popular with the trucks. I am intrigued by the initials NIOPDC appearing on a tanker and spend a good while on cracking the abbreviation. And you thought I was reading Almqvist... Out here in the middle of nowhere ... read more

"Good morning!", Mr. Hoseyn exclaims enthusiastically as we climb into the car yet another early morning. I don't really like early rise but reply "Sobh beh'khayr" just as energetically. We leave Kerman and drive southeast towards our main goal for the day the city of Bam and its grand citadel, some 200 kms away. As you may recall much of the city was razed by a very powerful earthquake (the official figures state a magnitude of 6.6) in late December 2003 and a tremendous amount of people were left killed or homeless. According to a report on FarsiNet about 43.000 were killed, 20.000 injured and a further 60.000 homeless. I still remember seeing the newsreel on TV sitting at a hotelroom in Taipei. This particular November day though, the sun is high in the sky, the ... read more

Today's assignment is an excursion to Perespolis, the old winter capital. The journey goes on dusty roads through sandy plains with scattered rugged mountains and cliffs along the sides. Most of the traffic consists of trucks and buses. There are plenty of interesting vintage types to observe, like the N40, Mercedes O302, O309 and L808. Any fellow nerds will know what I am talking about, you others are welcome to simply read on... Arriving at Peresepolis we are arriving in front of the remains of the main city gates. Although excited at first I am a bit let down by the general state of things. What remains of the city are battered pillars rising to the sky, flights of stairs and occasional big blocks of stone scattered around and imposing figures of stone looking down on ... read more