Overland to London - Isfahan, Shiraz & Persepolis

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan

Fri 19 March                           ISFAHAN

        A Persian proverb says: “Isfahan is half of the world”  and it certainly is one of the most architectually beautiful cities in Asia. Although it is an ancient city, it reached its apogee during the rule of the Shah Abbas the Great in the early 17^th century, after he moved the capital of Safavid Empire to Isfahan, making it an important stop on the Silk Road.

Brassware in Naqsh-e Jahan Square, outisde the entrance to the Grand Bazaar, Isfahan

        When the Arab traveller, Ibn Batuta, visited Isfahan in the 14^th century he described the city thus: “Isfahan is one of the largest and fairest of cities, but the greater part of it is now in ruins, as a result of the feud between Sunnis and Shiites, which is still raging there.” In 1387 Isfahan surrendered to Tamerlane who imposed punitive taxes on the population. After the city revolted and killed some of Tamerlane’s tax collectors and soldiers, Tamerlane reacted by ordering a massacre of the city’s population and it is believed around 70,000 were killed.  With the arrival of Shah Abbas, in 1598,  Isfahan’s golden age began and the city was rebuilt in the style we now see today. The population of the city also increased and Shah Abbas resettled as many as 300,000 Armenians from the border areas of the Ottoman Empire, giving them a trading roads monopoly to develop Safavid involvement in the Silk Road trade. The New Jolfa district of Isfahan still remains a largely Armenian populated district. Isfahan was sacked by Afghan invaders in 1722 which saw a decline in the city’s fortunes and importance. 

Ali Qapu Palace from Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan

        The city has been built around Naqsh-e Jahan ‘Image of the World’ Square, once called Shah Square and now Imam Square. This is one of the largest squares in the world. At the south end of the square is the royal blue Shah Mosque, now known as the Imam Mosque. The Sheikh Lotfollah a smaller, but equally beautiful mosque, faces the Ali Qapu, or Imperial Palace of the Safavids. The Grand Bazaar of Isfahan is situated at the northern end of the Square and is a fascinating place to purchase brassware, silverware, gold jewellery, precious and semi-precious stones, carpets and kilims.  There are fine Islamic miniature paintings which are also pricey.

Enamel plates & vases & brassware in the Grand Bazaar, Isfahan

Sat 20 March                          ISFAHAN 

This morning I walked over Seeyosepol Bridge over the Zayandeh Rud, (this bridge is one of the oldest in Isfahan, built by direction of Shah Abbas the Great in 16^th century) to the Armenian Quarter to visit the Vank Cathedral. This Armenian church is officially the Holy Saviour Cathedral, also known as the Church of the Saintly Sisters, and dates from the early 17^th century when Shah Abbas forcibly resettled thousands of Armenians during the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1603-1618. The popular name, Vank, means monastery in Armenian. The Cathedral has  a dome not unlike a mosque, and the interior is covered with frescoes depicting various  Biblical scenes, from the creation of the world and Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden to the martyrdom of Saints such as John, Boniface, Stephen, George, Andrew, Catherine. Some of these martyrdom scenes are rather gory with  saints being dragged over nails, beaten with sticks, castrated, flayed, boiling oil poured on them etc. The light in the Cathedral was not  good and the  higher frescoes were not clear. Over the door is a huge mural depicting the horrors of hell, perhaps to remind an uneducated congregation what could be in store for them if they failed to follow the righteous ways as decreed by the clergy!  

Dome of the Shah (now Imam) Mosque, Isfahan Dome interior, Shah (Imam) Mosque

         Later this afternoon I visited the Masjid-e Shah, or the Shah Mosque. The building is the most beautiful I have seen, being completely covered inside and out with delicately painted  tiles. This mosque was built on the orders of Shah Abbas the Great between 1606 – 1637, being designed by the architect Aliakbar Isfahani. The tilework, a riot of yellows, blues and greens, is detailed and although light was fading inside the dome, the blue tiles on the outside of the dome were accentuated in the afternoon sun.

Elaborate tilework, Shah (Imam) Mosque, Isfahan

From the Maidan-e Naqsh-e Jahan the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque was resplendent in the afternoon sun, framed by the fountains of the Square. I walked around to the nearby Chahar Bagh Madrassa, or Theological College, built a little later than the Masjid-e Shah, but also having exceptionally fine tilework.  An Iranian ‘student’ took me to see a camel oil press in a mudbrick building in the old city which, unfortunately, was closed and also to a cloth printing factory. The cloth is dyed with traditional vegetable dyes which are said to be fast.  In the evening I went with a number of the tour group to the American Advisory HQ, the Americans having a large presence in Isfahan in 1970, to see the film Ice Station Zebra before having a few beers in their bar. 

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque & 'stalactite' tilework over the entrance

Sun 21 March               ISFAHAN – SHIRAZ                                                                                                                                                                             480kms

We left Isfahan for Shiraz at 8.30. Most of today’s drive is through desert inhabited by the nomadic Baktiari tribes, famous for their hand-woven rugs. The previous Shah tried, by force, to settle them down as oil had been found on their tribal lands, and within  a year most of their cattle had died and a major revolution broke out. The revolution was bloody with many arrested and executed.

Remains of the castle at Izadkast, on the road to Shiraz

        A stop was made this morning at the small village of Izadkast which had had to be moved some 5 years ago owing to a bad erosion problem. The remains of the old ruined castle stands high above the road. After a lunch stop in the  small town of Abadeh, we drove on to the tombs of the Persian kings at Naqsh-i Rustam. The tombs are believed to be those of Darius I the Great, Darius II, Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I; the earliest dating from 486 BC. Below the tombs are rock reliefs, the oldest of which dates to around 1000 BC and is of a Elamite priest and Persian deities. The most famous rock relief, cut into the rock in the 3^rd century AD is of the Roman Emperor Valerian surrendering to the Persian king Shapur I after the Battle of Edessa in 260. This was one of the worst defeats suffered by a Roman army and the first time a Roman emperor had been taken prisoner in battle. A Zoroastrian fire temple and fire altars are also found here.  We arrived in Shiraz after dark and after eating, drove to Shiraz Camping for the night.

The rock-cut tomb of Darius the Great, Naqsh-i Rustam

Rock relief of Roman Emperor Valerian surrendering to Shapur I

Mon 22 March            SHIRAZ – PERSEPOLIS - ISFAHAN                                                                                                                                                                          482kms

Shiraz, the city of poets, literature, wine, flowers and gardens, was home to Saadi and Hafez, two of Iran’s greatest poets. Hafez, enamoured with Shiraz, waxed lyrical about his hometown:

Tomb of the poet Hafiz, Shiraz

For a mole on the cheek of my darling

  Which the breezes of Shiraz have fanned,

I would gladly surrender Bukhara,

  Or give back to its Khan Samarkand.

 

After visiting the 15^th century tomb of Hafez, we left the city by the Koran Gate are drove the short distance to Persepolis. 

Koran Gate, Shiraz

Persepolis, literally ‘City of the Persians’, was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, founded by Darius the Great in 518 BC. The ancient Persians called the city Parsa which was also this region of Iran, and the origin of the word Persia. Technically, the name Persia just referred to this area of the country, now known as Fars, and in 1935 the country was renamed Iran, land of the Aryans, which was deemed more appropriate for the entire country.

General view of the ruins of Persepolis in 1970

 

Reliefs on stairs leading to the Apadana Palace, Persepolis

 The complex is raised on a walled platform and most of the buildings were of packed mud  with roofs supported by cedar columns. The Apadana Palace was the largest building at Persepolis, having an area of 1000m² and the roof was supported by 72 columns, each 24m tall. Unfortunately the Palace was destroyed by Alexander the Great and his men in 331 BC, during what was said to have been a drunken orgy. Restoration  work has been ongoing, but the reliefs, particularly the ones  leeward of the prevailing wind and on the great stairway to the Apadana Place, are in near perfect condition. These reliefs consist of images of the Persian kings and subject peoples bringing tributes as well as the symbolic combat between the lion and the bull. Most impressive is the Gate of All Nations, where some columns have been re-erected. On the hill overlooking the city are the tombs of Artaxerxes II and III and Darius III (unfinished). The tomb of Artaxerxes II consisted of a grotto and a coffin hewn out of solid rock. This king lived between 404-358 BC. The last King, Darius III, was killed by a Persian  governor who hoped to please Alexander the Great  but, in fact, angered the Greek to such at extent that he had the governor put to death and accorded Darius a royal funeral at Persepolis. 

Columns & a horsehead capital, Persepolis

From Persepolis, we now backtracked to Isfahan. 

Tue 23 March                          ISFAHAN

    This morning I went down to the bazaar to visit the camel oil press. This is the King’s oil extraction plant, the Assarkhaneh Shahi, which is in a 16^th-century building constructed on the orders of Shah Abbas. This centuries-old operation involves a camel (blindfolded) walking  around in a circle pulling a long wooden beam which is placed in a hole in a vertical stone  grinding wheel which crushes the oilseeds placed under it.

Tile-work in the Chahar Bagh Theological College, Isfahan 

        Later today I revisited the Shah Mosque, the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and the Chahar Bagh Theological College (Madrassa), spending sometime in this beautiful building  photographing the mosque and tile-work.

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.