It’s amazing how much of Kashan you can see in a single day, the bus ride from Tehran included, provided you make it to the bus station early. The town is small and taxi rides cheap and plentiful. I did have the advantage of being accompanied by a guide who swiftly took me from site..
The before photos remind me of post-war Germany. No bombing necessary, though. Disinterest in one’s past did the job. No after photos necessary either. The impossible stood in front me; the 230-year-old Ameri House of Kashan (kaw-SHAWN) back in its full glory, a veritable witness to persistence, thoughtfulness and love for Iran’s heritage. Before and after of Ameri..
Bagh-e (Garden of) Akbarieh (or Akbariyeh), ancient home to the rulers of the area, today is the site of two museums, in Birjand, the capital of South Khorasan province, in northeast Iran. The garden is one of nine in UNESCO’s “Persian Garden” collection. Ali Torkzadeh with Saeideh Ajilchi Ali & Saeideh plan their Iran roadtrips..
Where on earth do you find an abandoned caravanserai by the roadside – wide open for your personal inspection? Here in Iran. For Saeideh and I it’s turning into a habit. It’s past sunset and I’m driving a 4WD in central Iran, just past Ravar toward Tabas. From the corner of an eye I see..
For 2,500 years Zoroastrians left their dead outside to be consumed by carrion birds. The idea was to avoid contaminating the soil and the fire, both of which are considered sacred. The place they ceremonially laid out the bodies is called dakhmeh (Persian: دخمه), consisting of a perfectly symmetrical flat-topped stone tower, where the bodies..
I wasn’t prepared for the shocking views at Naqsh-e Rustam and I’m glad I wasn’t. I stood there, mouth open and oblivious to our tour’s guide’s explanations, starring at what must be the world’s most stunning graveyard. Persian kings were buried over many centuries, in tombs carved into the side of the rocky mountain and decorated with giant..
“Now you know why Iranians are so proud,” my wife told me after I visited Persepolis today. “This history is why they think they have everything and no one else – the Americans, the Europeans, no one else – compares to them.” I’m tempted to deduce just the opposite, that contemporary Iranians – who don’t..
Vakil Bath is an old public bath turned into a museum in Shiraz, an exquisitely restored window into a bygone era when public baths were more like social clubs for business and politics. Ali Torkzadeh with Saeideh Ajilchi Ali & Saeideh plan their Iran roadtrips from their home in Mashhad. More about us here >>
A postal route operated here when North America wasn’t yet settled by Europeans. Travelers and businessmen slept here in style 200 years before there was even such a thing as the United States. But today the caravanserai of Zafaraniyeh sits empty and abandoned, like thousands of other ancient jewels all over Iran, victim of time, cultural amnesia and..
Near SABZEVAR, Iran – Iran is so old that sometimes even aimless tourists get to discover a village chock full of antiquities seemingly unnoticed by a government overwhelmed with the upkeep of thousands of similar jewels. It’s mid-August afternoon and wife Saeideh and I are speeding toward Sabzevar on the highway that used to be..
IMAM REZA SHRINE, MASHHAD, Iran – Beneath giant chandeliers and surrounded by bewilderingly intricate mirror artwork and calligraphy sits this nation’s equivalent of the Wailing Wall. Dar-al Hojjeh is an immense underground hall adjacent to the burial chamber of Imam Reza (Persian: امام رضا), whose 1000-year-old shrine is Iran’s spiritual nucleus and the world’s largest..