Iran (II.) - From Tehran to Shiraz

The trip to Iran came in a packed marathon of travels I somehow managed to plan myself into, which had (and still has) me running around like a headless chicken from mid-April till early July: Rome for work, from there weekend in Treviso to visit Miky’s parents, back to Rome to finish off my contract, back to Turin on a Friday late night, and off to Iran the next morning, while between all this moving into our new house - and so I was packing for Iran in the middle of the night, after being away for two weeks, out of boxes, and in a completely new place.

(The exciting sequence then continued with 10 days in Czechoslovakia, return to Italy, back to work, 4-day work trip to Laos, return to Turin for a few days, then Venice for a wedding, Czech Republic for another wedding – all this in just over a month, probably to be followed by death from exhaustion. Clearly, I’m a logistical genius.)

So by the time we reached Tehran, with a long layover betwewen flight, I was in a full zombie state, ready to go straight to bed - not too practical, as it was an early morning.

Luckily, Tehran is rather un-nice, so I feel no regret that we essentially spent our day-and-half in the capital sleeping and sorting out logistics. The main aim of logistics was to get out of Tehran as soon as possible, as far as possible, and in that we were successful.

Right, so can you guess where we're going, and what time is the departure?

Tehran: cars, cars, and more cars

In the little time left in the capital, we at least went to see the Azadi tower, Tehran’s landmark from 1970s.

If you travel in Iran, you absolutely have to take the train – ideally overnight. That’s what we did from Tehran heading south to Shiraz, and it was like travelling in the Orient Express.

Tehran train station

Trains are slower than buses (and they are more expensive – which is still quite cheap), but they are just so much more comfortable. There is space, toilets, even carpets (!), you can walk around, and sleep in an actual bed. You get a tea and snacks, and people talk to you. And you have all the time in the world to watch the scenery, and realise that you’re crossing Iran.

We left Tehran in mid-afternoon, and arrived to Shiraz the following morning.

Good morning Shiraz (train station)

Shiraz used to be the wine capital of Iran, but now there isn't any wine anymore (at least officially) – grapes are produced only for raisins and table grapes (sigh). Apart from raisins, there is also a citadel…

Arg-e-Karim Khan, or Karim Khan citadel. A castle, then a prison, now a museum.

 

… a big shrine…

Shah Cheragh shrine

… mosques…

Vakil mosque

 

… gardens…

Eram garden

… bazaar…

 

… or palaces.

"The ceiling is painted with various drawings and pictures." Now that's what I call a helpful explanation.

Shiraz was nice, but it didn’t thrill us. Initially, we had even considered skipping it - but as there is the ancient site of Persepolis nearby, at the end we thought that combined with Shiraz they gave a reasonably sufficient reason for visit, especially as we were unlikely to ever come back to that part of Iran.

Persepolis was the capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, one of the largest empires in history, destroyed in 330 BC by Alexander the Great – who is seen as not-so-great by Iranians, for obvious reasons.

The Gate of All Nations

This is what is left of the Apadana palace, a huge audience hall

It’s really worth taking the guide, to have some history behind the scattered stones - and there is quite some history.

Reliefs showing representatives of 23 of the nations of the empire. Sort of like the EU.

Very close to Persepolis, and definitely worth visiting, is a necropolis site with four gigantic tombs of the Achaemenid kings, carved high in the rock, resembling a little the rock-hewn churches in Ethiopia.

Naqsh-e Rustam, necropolis with tombs of Achaemenid kings

 

If there is one particular thing to watch out for in Persepolis, it’s sunburn. The ruins offer very little shade, and after the whole morning under the bright sun, you might end up spending the rest of the afternoon only wanting to lie in the shade.

Lying in the shade with an abundant fruit juice is a good moment for logistics though, especially if you haven’t done that at home, and so we managed to plan out the next few (read two) days, before boarding a (very comfortable) VIP night bus to Kerman.

A note on the itinerary 

There are some “usual ingredients” of a typical trip in Iran, essentially consisting of Shiraz, sometimes Kerman, Yazd, and Esfahan, which you can visit in clockwise or counter-clockwise direction – and actually, the direction matters.

I totally recommend the counter-clockwise direction, which allows your trip to get better and better with every place you visit, starting from the somewhat underwhelming Shiraz and finishing off with the striking Yazd and visually impressive Esfahan.

Unless, of course, you are the type of person who likes spoilers and you want to exhaust most of the wow-effect right at the beginning, in which case you should start off with Esfahan – as most of the travellers we talked to, for some reason (and they all agreed that after seeing Esfahan there is little that can surprise you – which is a shame, I think).

More on Iran:
Iran (I.) - "But be careful"
Iran (III.) - Kerman and the Kalut desert 
Iran (IV.) - Yazd and more desert