Overland to London - Zahedan to Isfahan

 

Mil-e Naderi, an ancient route marker in the Dasht-e Lut Desert, Iran 

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Sun 24 February         TAFTAN – ZAHEDAN                                                                                                                                                      100 kms 
        

At sunrise, keep an eye open for Koh-i-Taftan, the large 4000m high stratovolcano that dominates south-eastern Iran. Although some distance from here, it can still look impressive in the morning light. The border post should open between 8 and 9, but it will depend on the vagaries of the local officials – they often prevaricate when they see a large group.  Be aware that on the Iranian side they will check vaccination certificates. As mentioned yesterday, there is one and a half hour time difference between Pakistan and Iran.

The Koh-i Taftan, 4000m volcano in the morning light

Hopefully formalities will be completed by 10 or 11 (maybe being optimistic) then we can set out, over marginally better roads to the Iranian city of Zahedan. Where we spend the night.

Mon 25 February         ZAHEDAN – BAM – KERMAN                                                                                                                                                                523 kms

            A long haul today over roads that are improving. There is a section not far from Zahedan which is being reconstruction by the British Company Marples-Ridgway which will be a tremendous improvement when completed. 

Sundowners coach in the Dasht-e Lut Desert, Iran

           Our route first takes us across the Dasht-e Lut Desert, said to have recorded some of the hottest temperature of earth. In the heart of the desert we will see the Mil-e Naderi, an ancient tower built of mudbricks that served as a route marker to caravans traversing the Desert along the Silk Road to Isfahan.

The outer walls & the moat of the Citadel, Bam, Iran

Arg-e Bam, the mudbrick Citadel of Bam, Iran

        Closer to Kerman, we come across the amazing, fortified town of Bam, said to be the largest abode  (mudbrick) construction in the world. Some archaeologist believe the Arg-e Bam, or citadel, could date back to the Achaemenians around 4^th century BC, but new fortifications were built by the Sassanids (pre-Islamic Persians) between the 3^rd and 7^th centuries. Bam, because of its strategic position, became an important stop on the Silk Road and was renown for silkworm breeding. In the 19^th century its importance had declined as a caravan stop and it became a military garrison during the Qajar Dynasty of Persian rulers. In 1900, construction of the new city of Bam commenced. 

(P.S. On December 26, 2003, Bam was struck by an extremely destructive magnitude 6.6 earthquake which killed around 26,200 and destroyed much of this ancient city. UNESCO World Heritage has been instrumental in  the ongoing work of reconstructing the Citadel)

The walls & fortifications of the Citadel at Bam, Iran

   Another 190kms on good roads will take us to Kerman, the main city in this area of Iran. Near Kerman is a systems of qanats, an ancient subterranean system for transporting water from an aquifer or well to an area of cultivation, a town or garden by way of an underground aqueduct.

This photo of Ayatollah Khomeini had been slipped
under of windscreen wipers on the outward journey

These water channels are anything upwards of 5kms in length, from 100m to 15m below ground and with access wells every 20-35m. In the early 1950s an expedition from Oxford University travelled to Kerman to study the qanat system. Anthony Smith, a member of the expedition aptly described the qanats in Blind White Fish in Persia,  his book on the expedition:.  “As with birds before an island, the qanat wells warned you of the approach of a town; they are the ramifying tendrils which are responsible for its livelihood, the arteries of its existence and, as with arteries, their breakdown causes that existence to cease.” 

 

Tue 26 February           KERMAN – YAZD - ISFAHAN                                                                                                                                                     680 kms

            Early start for the long drive through to the amazing city of Isfahan. The route takes us through the city of Rafsanjan which is the world’s largest producer of pistachio nuts and then on to Yazd, ‘city of the Windcatchers’.

Windcatchers in Yazd - (Diego Delso - Wikimedia)

The windcatchers, or wind towers are an architectural feature used to create natural ventilation and passive cooling in buildings. Yazd also has a large Tower of Silence, used by adherents to the Zoroastrian faith upon which they placed their dead in ‘sky burials’. In the Zoroastrian religion, fire and clean water were agents of ritual purity and the dead were placed on these Towers of Silence for excarnation, that is the exposure to the elements for decay in order to avert contamination of the soil. Carrion birds, such as vultures, would consume the flesh and the skeletal remains would be left in a central lime pit. At the moment (1980), the current rulers of Iran are a little touchy about foreigners taking photos of these towers.

 

          Zoroastrianism is one of the world’s oldest continuously practised religions and is based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra. Zoroastrianism has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil, and an eschatology predicting the ultimate

Ahura Mazda

conquest of evil by good. Ahura Mazda, the uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom is the Supreme Being. Places of worship are fire  temples, with each temple containing an altar with an eternal flame that burns continuously and is never extinguished. According to Zoroastrian tradition, the original sacred fire came directly from Ahura Mazda. After the Islamic invasion of Persia in the 7^th century, many Zoroastrians migrated to India establishing communities in Bombay and elsewhere, where they are known as the Parsis and still practise their ancient religion. It is also believed that the Magi, the three wise men, of the Christian Nativity who came from the East, were Zoroastrian priests.

        From Yazd we have about a 4 hour drive over reasonable roads to Isfahan where we will be staying at the Jahan Hotel.

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan, Iran

    M next post will begin tracing the Overland route from Peshawar through after and Iran to Isfahan, then on into Eastern Turkey to Ankara. This journey is based on a Penn Overland trip I took in 1970 with Hubert Decleer as courier. 

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

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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.