Esfahan - Imam mosque

Brace for photos. I am quite in love with Esfahan. (Come to Iran, come to Iran).

The first two are of something that we saw all through Iran. People camping in city parks and on the sides of the road. In lots of places they had picnic-rug/tent-sized concrete squares to set up on. It is the cheap way to travel, but in stead of going bush and doing it, you do it in the next time. It is especially useful when there are a lot of people travelling and the hotels are booked up.

The rest are of the Imam mosque at Imam square. The square is the biggest in the world after Tiananmen. The boss man who built it played polo there and there was a big drum that they hit whenever he scored a goal so that the city would know about it. The goal posts are still there at either end, but I forgot to take a photo of them. Just imagine a pair of giant concrete phalluses at either end and you don't need a photo to remember them either.

Little ponies with jingling bells and silent hooves trot jauntily around the square pulling carriages full of Iranian tourists. Yes, I did get a video. No, I don't know how to put it onto the blog.

Shiraz, mainly the bazaar

On the alley out from our hotel.

One of the entrances of one of the bazaars.

Dried citrus fruit.

Pots and Pans.

Shoe repair.

Scarves.

Fabric shop. All of the sellers were men, even in the most sparkly, women-filled stores.

Boxes.

Guns and Ammo.

Ribbons.

The cutest boy in Iran.

Persepolis

The first picture is of our marvellous Iranian guide, Mustafa. If you are thinking of coming to Iran (and you should) I will put up his details, did I mention he is marvellous?

Persepolis was something else. I think Persepolis was on the front cover of our year 7 history book. Certainly I have seen pictures of the stuff here all over the place. How did I ever try and convince myself to just stay at home and look at pictures of these places in coffee table books instead of travelling? So I am showing you the next three pictures of stuff that is in books, only I couldn't get the angles from the books because there was scaffolding all over the joint.

Then we have a picture of a sign. Look closely at the sign for the toilets.

Does anyone else see what I see in this picture? (sorry, Mum).

This famous stabbity bashidy picture is one I have seen a lot. It is some king protecting the palace from a symbolic lion - I think the lion was symbolic of the raging somethingness of humans.

Leo taking down Taurus (the Iranians were all about the astronomy).

A pony for Jayne (there were lots of ponies and I took lots of really bad pic

Persepolis

I don't know why the internet has started working, but I am going to try and put up as many pictures as possible.

The first picture is of our marvellous Iranian guide, Mustafa. If you are thinking of coming to Iran (and you should) I will put up his details, did I mention he is marvellous?

Persepolis was something else. I think Persepolis was on the front cover of our year 7 history book. Certainly I have seen pictures of the stuff here all over the place. How did I ever try and convince myself to just stay at home and look at pictures of these places in coffee table books instead of travelling? So I am showing you the next three pictures of stuff that is in books, only I couldn't get the angles from the books because there was scaffolding all over the joint.

Then we have a picture of a sign. Look closely at the sign for the toilets.

Does anyone else see what I see in this picture? (sorry, Mum).

This famous stabbity bashidy picture is one I have seen a lot. It is some king protecting the palace from a symbolic lion - I think the lion was symbolic of the raging somethingness of humans.

Leo taking down Taurus (the Iranians were all about the astronomy).

A pony for Jayne (there were lots of ponies and I took lots of really bad pictures of them)

Sheep for Jayne (there was a lot of anatomy in the carvings in Persepolis - nearly everything had anatomy)

Some men on a wall.

Some more men on a wall.

Proof I was there.

Driving in to Persepolis

Everytime I turn around I am knocked flat on my arse by this land and its people.

Driving through the desert was one thing. I know deserts. Australia does deserts. Flat dry land and blue forever sky. I get it. But this. We are driving towards Persepolis and Shiraz and ancient dry hills surround valleys made for growing grapes and tomatoes and corn. The heat, the dry air, the colour of the hills. This should be desert, but it is violently green with good things to eat and drink and we are getting wafts of cow dung and other good fertilisers through the open windows of the truck.

I feel like professor Sumner-Miller. Why is it so?

Zeinoddin Caravanserai to Persepolis

After arguing with the internet in Esfahan for a long time, it has finally deigned to upload a few photos.

So, we have here:

The roof of my bedroom in the caravanserai

The inner courtyard.

The twisted corpse of the Bloody Great Spider that ran down my arm, across the carpet and up John's leg while we were watching the traditional dancers. That spider was not like Australian spiders that I have had run over me. There was no tickle. That puppy had heft, it was a weighty spider. To the point that I was convinced it was the curtain flapping against me, not a spider running down my arm.

The little blurb about the caravanserai.

Two shots of hills.

One dodgy shot that is the only one I have of grapes near Shiraz.

More crops.

Eucalyptus trees in the carpark at Persepolis. There are quite a few of them planted around Iran. You can smell them.