Persepolis is one of the most well-known of Iran’s sights. The name of Persepolis is linked to the Achaemenian empire and its kings – Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes. Trying to conjure up images of Persepolis, I always imagined heavily-robed people walking along the bazaars of this huge city haggling with the shopkeepers over exotic items. How wrong I was! Persepolis was not a ‘living’ city – it was largely a ceremonial capital, used only for extravagant ceremonies especially during Navroz celebrations.
Construction started during the reign of Darius the great in 518BC. There are many theories about the decline of this “city” but the one most people believe is that it was burnt to the ground by Alexander in 330BC when he defeated Darius III. What the truth was, we’ll perhaps never know. In fact very few contemporary foreign records mentioned this city, which probably meant that, during its time, this city was largely kept a secret.
The ‘city’ was much smaller than what I had imagined it to be. But then apparently the entire ruins have not been excavated as yet. The main entrance was through a grand staircase - I could picture Darius entering on his horse through this staircase to crowds of swooning subjects. Through the ruins of columns, pillars, and walls, one can visualise large halls and grand gates and the grandeur that once was. These pillars and walls had elaborately carved reliefs of armies and people making offerings. What, however, was interesting was that there were no statues or reliefs of women figures – all the figures were male!!!
At Persepolis, I had one of my ‘I am here’ moments. As I was getting my photograph taken, it suddenly dawned upon me that I was amongst the ruins of an elaborate city from over 2500 years back. Travel does that to you sometimes.
Our next stop was Naksh-E-Rostam which has the rock-cut tombs of Darius I, Darius II, Xerxes I, and Artaxerxes I, These tombs are cut onto the cliff face high above the ground. Somehow this site reminded me of Petra but minus the hoardes of tourists. And obviously, it is much smaller. Besides the four impressive tombs (that seem to be hanging in mid air), there are also a number of Sassanid reliefs (2nd – 6th C AD).
From there on, our minivan took us to a wee village. We were originally supposed to go to a Qashqai nomadic village, but there was a slight change in programme. As our van was pulling into the home of our hosts in the village, we saw a group of boys playing football in the large open street. So guess where we went as soon as the van stopped? We joined this impromptu game. Of course, the boys were far better than us weary tourists – our excuse was that the village was at an altitude and we were not used to it (in our defence, we were out of breath). But nonetheless, it was a nice experience to have a game of breathless football, surrounded by snow-clad mountains.
During dinner our hosts had invited almost everyone they knew in the village (which meant everyone!) and it was fun as they all wanted to practice their English on us. Dinner was, as is the case in a large Iranian household, eaten on the floor on a large mat. Post-dinner one of the boys produced an old rifle and we all took turns toying with the rifle and a nice hookah. Warlord style!
Our next stop was the town of Eghlid. Right opposite our hotel was a wee school where we walked in – suddenly we were mobbed by a group of little boys who wanted us to photograph them and be photographed with us. Later when we were visiting one of the mosques, we were again mobbed. It is so refreshing to be given so much attention by locals who don’t want to sell you something or take your money off you (as is the case in most other countries).
We visited a couple of parks that were away from the city and as we entered one of the parks we saw a particularly photogenic building across the road with some eye-catching posters. As we started to photograph them, we heard a commotion across the street. It was a couple of Revolutionary Guards from the building telling us not to photograph it but they were smiling. We sheepishly put our cameras away.
The town also has a evocative mosque dedicated to martyrs of the Iran Iraq war. Few people realise that more than a million Iranians were killed in this war and this mosque was a reminder that those killed have not been forgotten. At the top of the hill behind the mosque were the remains of a tower of silence where we also saw the remains of a cellphone tower! (which was pulled down after a complaint was made that this was an inappropriate place to erect the tower).
Construction started during the reign of Darius the great in 518BC. There are many theories about the decline of this “city” but the one most people believe is that it was burnt to the ground by Alexander in 330BC when he defeated Darius III. What the truth was, we’ll perhaps never know. In fact very few contemporary foreign records mentioned this city, which probably meant that, during its time, this city was largely kept a secret.
The ‘city’ was much smaller than what I had imagined it to be. But then apparently the entire ruins have not been excavated as yet. The main entrance was through a grand staircase - I could picture Darius entering on his horse through this staircase to crowds of swooning subjects. Through the ruins of columns, pillars, and walls, one can visualise large halls and grand gates and the grandeur that once was. These pillars and walls had elaborately carved reliefs of armies and people making offerings. What, however, was interesting was that there were no statues or reliefs of women figures – all the figures were male!!!
At Persepolis, I had one of my ‘I am here’ moments. As I was getting my photograph taken, it suddenly dawned upon me that I was amongst the ruins of an elaborate city from over 2500 years back. Travel does that to you sometimes.
Our next stop was Naksh-E-Rostam which has the rock-cut tombs of Darius I, Darius II, Xerxes I, and Artaxerxes I, These tombs are cut onto the cliff face high above the ground. Somehow this site reminded me of Petra but minus the hoardes of tourists. And obviously, it is much smaller. Besides the four impressive tombs (that seem to be hanging in mid air), there are also a number of Sassanid reliefs (2nd – 6th C AD).
From there on, our minivan took us to a wee village. We were originally supposed to go to a Qashqai nomadic village, but there was a slight change in programme. As our van was pulling into the home of our hosts in the village, we saw a group of boys playing football in the large open street. So guess where we went as soon as the van stopped? We joined this impromptu game. Of course, the boys were far better than us weary tourists – our excuse was that the village was at an altitude and we were not used to it (in our defence, we were out of breath). But nonetheless, it was a nice experience to have a game of breathless football, surrounded by snow-clad mountains.
During dinner our hosts had invited almost everyone they knew in the village (which meant everyone!) and it was fun as they all wanted to practice their English on us. Dinner was, as is the case in a large Iranian household, eaten on the floor on a large mat. Post-dinner one of the boys produced an old rifle and we all took turns toying with the rifle and a nice hookah. Warlord style!
Our next stop was the town of Eghlid. Right opposite our hotel was a wee school where we walked in – suddenly we were mobbed by a group of little boys who wanted us to photograph them and be photographed with us. Later when we were visiting one of the mosques, we were again mobbed. It is so refreshing to be given so much attention by locals who don’t want to sell you something or take your money off you (as is the case in most other countries).
We visited a couple of parks that were away from the city and as we entered one of the parks we saw a particularly photogenic building across the road with some eye-catching posters. As we started to photograph them, we heard a commotion across the street. It was a couple of Revolutionary Guards from the building telling us not to photograph it but they were smiling. We sheepishly put our cameras away.
The town also has a evocative mosque dedicated to martyrs of the Iran Iraq war. Few people realise that more than a million Iranians were killed in this war and this mosque was a reminder that those killed have not been forgotten. At the top of the hill behind the mosque were the remains of a tower of silence where we also saw the remains of a cellphone tower! (which was pulled down after a complaint was made that this was an inappropriate place to erect the tower).
