Day 32: Saturday 7th October – Ashkabat’s surprising National Museum and crossing into Iran
We had showed up at the Turkmenistan National Museum in Ashgabat on Friday, only to find out it was closed owing to some national holiday. We were promised that if we came back first thing this morning, then we would be able to get in. And so it was…. not only that we had a personal tour of the Museum by clearly a senior guy who had fluent English, excellent knowledge of his subject and willingness to engage in a conversation about the exhibits and their history. What was not allowed was photography…. which was real shame, the whole thing was beautifully laid out with some wonderful exhibits and lots of information about each exhibit in English.
Entrance to the Turkmenistan National Museum in Ashkabat
Yes, the ground floor was full of pictures of the President and exhibits showing the wonder of his works but interestingly our guide skipped that altogether! Yes, some of the wording on the descriptions of the exhibits might be regarded as jingoistic, but generally we all thought it was a high quality museum. We had not been expecting that, given the Museum building is another one of the marble edifices we had already seen far too much of! I am only sorry i cannot share with you more about the exhibits…..
With a fair measure of excitement, we then set off for the border crossing from Turkmenistan into Iran. The two US citizens in our party just a little more tense perhaps than the rest of us….
Compared to some of our previous border crossing experiences this was a piece of cake! Getting out of Turkmenistan required a little patience but all was well in the end, we having had to put up with more statues and pictures of the President. Getting into Iran did involve sitting around for about 90 minutes, [but chairs were provided!] and our two US citizens were interviewed as to why they wanted to enter Iran, but they reported back that process was brief and courteous. Next thing we knew, we were in Iran!!
Pics of our journey: From Turkmenistan into Iran: Soon come!!!
Day 33: Sunday 8th October – Marshhad and the Imam Raza Complex
Ali Ibn Musa al-Reza was the eighth Imam of the Twelver branch of Shi’ite Islam. He was born in Medina on 6th January 766 and live under the reign of three Abbasid Caliphs. The last of these Ma’mun so feared Imam Reza and his popularity amongst the faithful that he martyred the Imam on 9th September 818.
His shrine is one of the holiest in Shi’ite Islam and the complex covers almost six and half million square feet and contains the Goharshad Mosque, a museum, a library, four madrassas, a cemetery, the Razavi University of Islamic Sciences, a dining hall for pilgrims, vast prayer halls and other buildings as well as sanctuaries, enormous courtyards and porches.
The Holy Shrine of Imam Reza in Marshhad
The complex is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of the history of Iranian-Islamic art and civilization.
See some more pics of the huge Imam Reza Complex: Soon come!!!
Day 34: Monday 9th October – Tehran: The Golestan Palace and the Iranian Crown Jewels
Given the tumultuous 20th Century background to Iran and the current political situation it is easy to lose sight of the awesome history of Iran and Persia and the contribution the country has made to civilisation over the centuries. Against that sweep of history Tehran itself is a relatively modern city having been founded in the sixteenth century and chosen as the country’s capital in 1795 by Agha Mohammad Khan of the Qajar Dynasty.
Serene Pond looking down towards the Marble Throne near the Golestan Palace in Tehran
Sadly the Islamic Republic of Iran bans photography in two of the major legacies of modern Iranian history: the Golestan Palace and the Iranian Crown Jewels collection, so you will have to take my word for it and my inadequate descriptions to try to appreciate the stunning nature of what we saw!
The Golestan Palace started unpromisingly with what seemed to me a largely nondescript set of buildings not always well restored but set in lovely quiet parks well away from the cacophony of Tehran’s legendary traffic. Almost all the buildings were constructed by the Qajar Dynasty during the late 18th Century and rebuilt in its current form in 1865. Between 1925 and 1945 a large proportion of the buildings in the complex were destroyed by Reza Shah who believed that Tehran’s development as a modern city should not be hampered by a bunch of old buildings!! Once we got inside it became clear that the Palace is primarily about the magical interior decoration of the place and the astonishing collection of treasures and furnishings being mainly four centuries of gifts from foreign potentiates to the Qajar Dynasty and the Pahlavi era.
More pics of the Golestan Palace: Soon come!!!
Day 35: Tuesday 10th October – Long drive to Isfahan via Fin Gardens at Kashan
We knew we were in for a long drive across the Iranian desert, south to Isfahan but with the stop at Kashan to see the Fin Gardens and the tantalising prospect of spending time in one of Iran’s most beautiful cities, plus the fact we would get three nights in the same hotel made the whole prospect much brighter!
We passed the Khomeni Mausoleum on the way out of Tehran but did not bother to stop…. As we left the City behind the sheer rugged toughness of the Iranian desert began to unfold- no cultivation, no grazing just scrubby desert with lots of broken rock and vicious looking sharp and corrugated ridges which must have made life exceptionally difficult for Silk Road traders. We saw a huge apparently shallow lake off to the west, looked saline to me but no way of knowing for sure. The desert was slightly less severe as we reached the region around Qom – a little grazing, sheep and camels, but very little arable.
The Fin Gardens at Kashan
Kashan of course and the Gardens of Fin in particular were a welcome oasis and we enjoyed a Vegetarian lunch in a beautiful restaurant set slightly below ground to help ward off the desert heat.
Onward then to Isfahan and our legendarily beautiful 300 year old Hotel Abbasi and a quick stroll around the delightfully lit Naqsh-e Jahan Square on our way to dinner at a traditional Iranian restaurant complete with day beds to eat on and kebabs to consume!
More pics of the Fin Garden: Soon come!!!
Day 36: Wednesday 11th October – Naqsh-e Jahan Square Esfahan
Cheating a little here because this pic was taken on Tuesday evening on our way out to dinner not long after we had arrived in Isfahan! However, we then spent all Wednesday morning checking out the Square and the three main buildings that form part of the complex: the Ali Qapu Palace, the Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque and the Shah Mosque
The Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan at night
The whole Square is almost one million square feet so you will enjoy the pics here: Naqsh-e Jahan Square: Soon come!!!
Day 37: Thursday 12th October – Isfahan: The Jameh Mosque and New Julfa
The city of Isfahan was one of my favourites in Iran with the vast Naqsh-e Jahan Square, the Grand Bazaar and what proved to be one of the lovliest hotels on our journey. There are also a couple of elegant and beautifully lit bridges over the once mighty Zayandeh River. I say ‘once mighty’ because as has often happened in this part of the world [The Aral Sea is the most notorious example] over ambitious attempts to irrigate the desert have resulted in disaster. In the case of the Zayandeh River it was completely dry when we visited, although i understand that in some seasons it does have a small flow of water.
One of the stunning gates in the Jameh Mosque
New Julfa is the Armenian Quarter of Isfahan, located along the south bank Zayandeh River. It was established in 1606 as an Armenian Quarter by the edict of Shah Abbas 1 from the Safavid Dynasty and was named after the Armenian city of Julfa, Nakhichavan. New Julfa remains one of the world’s largest ethnic Armenian Quarters with an Armenian School, sixteen churches and the Holy Saviour Cathedral.
The Jameh Mosque in Isfahan is regarded by many scholars as the oldest surviving Mosque in Iran, aside from which it is also the grand congregational Mosque for the City of Isfahan.
See more pics of the Jameh Mosque Isfahan and New Julfa: Soon come!!!
Day 38: Friday 13th October – flying back to Tehran and on to Tabriz
Up at four this morning to catch the first flight out of Isfahan back to Tehran on our way to Tabriz in the far northwest of Iran. Tabriz is our final port of call in Iran before heading over the border to Turkey on Sunday.
Tehran is almost surrounded by mountains…
This itinerary gave us an extra few hours in Iran a couple of which were spent at the Reza Abbasi Museum. The Museum was opened a year before the Revolution and shows the vast collection of ancient artifacts and medieval art and calligraphy collected by the wife of the last Shah of Persia. In addition to the few thousand exhibits on display we were told that a further 50,000 collected by the Empress Farah are kept in storage.
Tehran has a legendary pollution problem caused partly by the dramatic increase in the number of vehicles on the roads over the last decade, fuelled by the fact that it costs four euro for a tank of petrol! The whole problem is exacerbated by Tehran’s geography: the city is surrounded by mountains which leave it in a wind shadow which allows the pollution to build up!
Some assorted pics of Iran here: Pics Iran: Soon come!!!
Day 39: Saturday 14th October – Tabriz and the Blue Mosque
We had a long day on Friday with an early start and got into our hotel pretty late that evening, so we were allowed an extra half hour in bed before starting a busy day in Tabriz on Saturday!
The Blue Mosque in Tabriz
In addition to a visit to the famous and important Blue Mosque we had some adventures in Tabriz’s gigantic Bazaar. This was very different to the more touristy offerings in some of the other Silk Road cities which is part of the reason it provided an excellent opportunity for some serious people watching! The Bazaar allegedly stretches over 9 km and has 22 domed halls. Tabriz is famed for its carpet making industry and so inevitably many of its ‘shops’ are outlets for the hundreds and hundreds of carpet merchants. There are some pics of the Bazaar in the Pics of Iran section. You will also find there some pics of our other adventure in which we took tea with a bunch of Armenian/Iranian old gentlemen puffing on hookah pipes!!
The Blue Mosque lived up to its billing and you will find more information about that and some more pics here: Blue Mosque Tabriz: Soon come!!!
Day 40: Sunday 15th October – A tricky border crossing and the Ishak Pasha Palace
So, our fifth and final border crossing initially seemed very straightforward: getting out of Iran went smoothly but getting everybody into Turkey proved a bit more challenging. First were the cigarette smugglers – fags are dirt cheap in Iran and very expensive in Turkey. What shook us was the blatant nature of what was happening and what looked to us like the open connivance of some of the Turkish border officials!
The Ishak Pasha Palace
This smuggling impacted on our crossing in two ways: first all of us were accosted pretty aggressively to carry fags through customs on behalf of the smugglers and secondly they used a kind of ‘steaming’ tactic to rush the border and get as much contraband through as they could! This of course created chaos and some unpleasantness….. The second source of delay was that our two US Citizens in the party found themselves held up for several hours while the local officials got permission from Ankara to let them into Turkey. The fact that all this was happening on a Sunday, certainly did not help. As frequently happens what was needed was patience and good humour and in due course we were all reunited!!
So, while our American friends waited patiently to be allowed into Turkey, the majority of us headed off to visit the Ishak Pasha Palace which overlooks Dogubayazit about which you will find more here: Ishak Pasha Palace: Soon come!!!
Tony's Geriatric Adventures 