Persepolis & Naqsh-eRustam

2013-09-14

Arrived at Persepolis at 8am at did a quick whip around with the camera while it was cool and the light was good and so that I could pay attention to all the stuff the guide was to be telling me later on. It’s a pretty awesome place though quite hard for me to picture what it would have looked like 2,500 years ago. After the photos and education I had a melon juice before tackling a wander up in the hills to get a view from up above it all and to see the two necropolisises (???) up in the rock faces. I saw a big lizard but nothing else exciting.

The ‘tourist’ area around it was just a big car park and some odd stores. People were camping on the concrete (people camp everywhere here, next to the road, in E-Goli park in Tabriz, it’s quite odd to me but very normal there) from the night before, though they did not appear to be remotely ready to go when I was there. Perhaps they were back already?

Kept on going to Naqsh-e Rustam which was, in a way, better than Persepolis because the epic scale of it has not been lost. I don’t have much else to say about it - look at the pictures and try to picture the size of them (and standing under them).

After some tea and biscuits it was time for the first long stretch of driving - in the direction of Yazd, but not quite - stopping at Zeinoddin Caravanserai for the night. Drive highlights:

• All the hills looking like they had fallen over
• Driving past someone selling Shiraz grapes
• Up high in the mountains, in million+ degree heat, passing someone cycling, in black, with a beard
• Dropping into a valley and watching 3 dust devils/little tornadoes spinning about (saw 5 in total)
• Found my favourite geological object - a great little mountain in the middle of nowhere (see photos)
• Stopping in Abarkhoo to see (allegedly) the oldest living thing - a ~4000 year old Cyprus tree
• While stopped in Abarkhoo, watching the wasps having a feast of dead dragonflies stuck to the front of the car
• Ice storage in Abarkhoo (the thing that looks like a beehive)
• Beautiful mountain after beautiful mountain
• Crossed a desert (I cannot find a name for it)

Arrived at Zeinoddin in time for sunset.