Tehran, the capital of Iran, is a huge, bustling modern city. It lacks much of the ancient history of Shiraz or Isfahan, but makes up for it with a depth of history from the 18th Century onwards, and as the…
Isfahan
Isfahan is Iran’s third largest city, and has one of the longest and most complex histories – acting as the capital of Persia during two separate periods. Over three millennia, the city’s fortunes have waxed and waned under dozens of…
Shiraz and the Zagros Mountains
Arriving in Shiraz, we took a day or two to catch our breath, not doing a huge amount of exploring – after a while, just being on the road takes it out of you! We had a wander through the…
Ashes of the Achaemenids
Approaching Shiraz in Southern Iran, you enter the heartland of the ancient Achaemenid Empire. At its peak, it stretched over a demesne as far west as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, south as far as Egypt and Sudan, north to…
Yazd, the ancient mud-walled city
Existing in the middle of the desert for over 5,000 years, the ancient city of Yazd still retains its original city core, with a twisting maze of mud-brick buildings and passages that feel like a time warp. We checked in…
Into the deserts of Iran
Crossing the frontier between Turkmenistan and Iran was a lot less fraught than entering Turkmenistan. A few hours of standard checks and processes, and we entered into country number 17. There’s a low range of mountains that form the natural…