As we ended up skipping the mountains, the one thing we decided we had to see in Iran was the desert. And not just seeing any desert – the Kalut (or Lut, or Dasht-e Loot) desert, spreading in Iran’s eastern provinces, one of the driest and hottest places on earth, apparently. And it turned out to be one of the most amazing parts of the trip.
During our logistics evening in Shiraz we found the contact of someone in Kerman organising trips to the Kalut, got in touch with him, and with a bit of juggling of different schedules agreed on a one-and-half day trip.
We reached Kerman in the morning - after the night in quite a comfortable “VIP bus” – and so we had half a day to explore the town, or at least the bazaar, before heading off to be roasted in the desert.
Sprawling maze of covered streets, the Kerman bazaar was definitely the most fascinating one, at least out of the few we saw.
With substantially fewer tourists than in all the other towns, it retained a “normal life” feel, with scenes like from an old movie.
In the mid-afternoon, with the inevitable delay, we then left with our guide – a local teacher, who in addition also hunts for tourists craving a desert trip – towards Shahdad, a small town some 90km east from Kerman, the last town just on the border with the Kalut desert.
To reach Shahdad, you travel over a mountain pass - and then descend practically into an oven. As we drove on, you could feel the temperature rising by the minute. I’m not quite sure how or why people settled in a place where the summer temperatures reach 50 degrees. If I was left to cultivate my own food, even in the most fertile place possible, I would die of hunger within (very few) weeks (it took me only three weeks just now to kill a rosemary plant on the balcony). The more it fascinates me how people manage to survive in so completely inhospitable places.
For centuries, to get water into these villages practically in the desert, the Persians/Iranians used an ingenious system of underground tunnels called qanat, tapping aquifer at the foot of the mountains, and bringing it with engineering precision through a system of underground tunnels. There are, apparently, over 30,000 qanats in Iran, and some of them are still functional – with the oldest one built around 500 BC and still in use. The water brought through qanats was distributed between villages and fields according to agreed rules, to avoid disputes.
But from outside you could hardly tell there is an underground water system. All you see are just lines of disintegrating piles of soil.
In reality, these piles of soil are left from the construction of the qanat vertical shafts, dug every 10m or so, to allow for inspection and repair of the main horizontal water tunnel - and most importantly, to allow those who were digging the qanat tunnel to breathe. All the tunnels - the vertical as well as the main horizontal one with water - have practically no reinforcement; and I'm just amazed how much knowledge and precision all this must have required.
If you have desert, you also have caravanserai – a network of fortified ancient inns (or whatever remains of them) at roughly one day of caravan travel, spreading alongside the Silk Road and other trading routes.
 |
| The Kalut desert |
During our logistics evening in Shiraz we found the contact of someone in Kerman organising trips to the Kalut, got in touch with him, and with a bit of juggling of different schedules agreed on a one-and-half day trip.
We reached Kerman in the morning - after the night in quite a comfortable “VIP bus” – and so we had half a day to explore the town, or at least the bazaar, before heading off to be roasted in the desert.
 |
| Kerman |
Sprawling maze of covered streets, the Kerman bazaar was definitely the most fascinating one, at least out of the few we saw.
With substantially fewer tourists than in all the other towns, it retained a “normal life” feel, with scenes like from an old movie.
In the mid-afternoon, with the inevitable delay, we then left with our guide – a local teacher, who in addition also hunts for tourists craving a desert trip – towards Shahdad, a small town some 90km east from Kerman, the last town just on the border with the Kalut desert.
To reach Shahdad, you travel over a mountain pass - and then descend practically into an oven. As we drove on, you could feel the temperature rising by the minute. I’m not quite sure how or why people settled in a place where the summer temperatures reach 50 degrees. If I was left to cultivate my own food, even in the most fertile place possible, I would die of hunger within (very few) weeks (it took me only three weeks just now to kill a rosemary plant on the balcony). The more it fascinates me how people manage to survive in so completely inhospitable places.
For centuries, to get water into these villages practically in the desert, the Persians/Iranians used an ingenious system of underground tunnels called qanat, tapping aquifer at the foot of the mountains, and bringing it with engineering precision through a system of underground tunnels. There are, apparently, over 30,000 qanats in Iran, and some of them are still functional – with the oldest one built around 500 BC and still in use. The water brought through qanats was distributed between villages and fields according to agreed rules, to avoid disputes.
But from outside you could hardly tell there is an underground water system. All you see are just lines of disintegrating piles of soil.
 |
| The qanat holes |
 |
| The qanat tunnel - an enlarged one to allow people to visit. The usual ones give space barely to one person to squeeze through. |
If you have desert, you also have caravanserai – a network of fortified ancient inns (or whatever remains of them) at roughly one day of caravan travel, spreading alongside the Silk Road and other trading routes.
Leaving behind these last traces of organised life, we then continued deeper into the desert itself.
 |
| Into the Kalut desert |
The Kalut desert has been inscribed in UNESCO just last year, and it’s an incredibly spectacular sight, with eroded rock formations…
… dry riverbeds…
 |
| It seems that flash floods happen here |
… salt rivers...
... and more remains of caravanserais.
A paved road - in a surprisingly good state - runs across the desert, connecting to Afghanistan. Not a place to run out of fuel.
With the sheer size of it, the heat, and being almost alone, it was an impressive place.
Our guide, Iraj, was from Shahdad, and we stayed in the house of his parents-in-law in Shahdad, with the Iranian life all unfolding on the carpeted floor: sitting, eating, sleeping.
After a bit of deliberation we decided to sleep outside, on a wooden bed – which turned out to be a mistake, as we ended up covered in some mysterious insect bites for the next number of days.
To complete the water tour, the next morning we had a look at the Shahdad water cistern, which stored and cooled water supplied to the town...
... and then returned to the more reasonable temperatures of Kerman, to take a bus heading north towards another desert town, Yazd.
More on Iran
Iran (I.) - "But be careful"
Iran (II.) - From Tehran to Shiraz
Iran (IV.) - Yazd and more desert
 |
| All salt |
... and more remains of caravanserais.
A paved road - in a surprisingly good state - runs across the desert, connecting to Afghanistan. Not a place to run out of fuel.
With the sheer size of it, the heat, and being almost alone, it was an impressive place.
Our guide, Iraj, was from Shahdad, and we stayed in the house of his parents-in-law in Shahdad, with the Iranian life all unfolding on the carpeted floor: sitting, eating, sleeping.
After a bit of deliberation we decided to sleep outside, on a wooden bed – which turned out to be a mistake, as we ended up covered in some mysterious insect bites for the next number of days.
To complete the water tour, the next morning we had a look at the Shahdad water cistern, which stored and cooled water supplied to the town...
 |
| Shahdad underground water cistern - in disuse nowadays, obviously |
 |
| Water cistern from outside, with four wind towers, which would cool the water |
... and then returned to the more reasonable temperatures of Kerman, to take a bus heading north towards another desert town, Yazd.
More on Iran
Iran (I.) - "But be careful"
Iran (II.) - From Tehran to Shiraz
Iran (IV.) - Yazd and more desert
No comments:
Post a Comment