Originally written June 23, embellished August 1
We went to Shiraz and Persepolis a couple of days ago. Shiraz is where the wine was born, from a special grape variety that grew there (Bobba Basorg has a grape vine in his backyard that has delicious grapes too, as an aside) and made wine so wonderful it inspired poets Sa'di and Hafez to become poets. They don't make wine anymore, but the town does have tombs and gardens set up for each of these men for visitors to read their words and celebrate their lives. We visited them and one had the coolest underground river going through the middle of a tea room. It was something to be in a town where the poets are that reverred and honored instead of the politicians.
Shiraz is where Shiraz University is, so we think that is why it's more progressive. Our first night we went out for dinner in search of an authentic Persian restaurant that Mack's dad recommended. On the way, as we were walking through town, we came upon this huge castle that took up an entire city block. It was surreal. All these modern day people playing soccer and laying around next to this enormous ancient building with 30 foot walls. (Turns out, this is the Arg-e Karim Khani, duh. It was used as a prison in Pahlavi times.) Only in Iran.
We made it to the restaurant, which was an old bath house that had been converted into a restaurant. We sat at the tables, but there were carpets laid out on raised floors for people to have that just-like-home experience if they wanted it. After enjoying our wooden chicken (don't ask, I still don't know, but it was good and served with potato sticks), we ordered a hookah.
It was delicious but a lot stronger than what we're used to here, and only two puffs into it my head started to get buzzed. We left and wandered back to our hotel and on the way, Mack stepped of the curb onto what I assumed was a sloping road but which turned out to be a 2-foot deep drainage ditch (they have those here on the side of every road without any barriers to them for some reason). He fell into the road and took a while to get up. I was worried he'd broken his leg or something, but it turns out he just sliced the top of his toe halfway off somehow. (No, Jennifer and Shannon, I did not push him!) We asked for the first aid kit at the hotel and got a bottle of ethyl alcohol. I suggested he drink half of it before we pour any on, and then he decided he'd just walk with it in the air and it would be fine until his mom, the nurse, could take a look at it. Good thing, because I almost puked and then cried for being such a wuss when I looked at it. And when I consulted the Iran travel book we brought to see what to do if you need a hospital, it said most things like stiches and general procedures were done at home. Not at my home.
We also went to Bagh-e Eram (a botanical garden that is incredibly beautiful) and realized that is where the students go to hold hands and be young and hang out. They had rock gardens and paths and the most incredible irrigation system with the freshest cold flowing water I've ever felt.
We also went to Bazar-e Vakil to look around and got hassled by a guide. This was the worst one yet, because he was less obvious. What they do is ask if they can talk to you for a minute and you assume it's because you speak English and they want to practice. Then they want to show you a 400-year-old theology school and you assume that's because the people here are just so fantastically hospitable. Then when you finally get tired of following the guy but you're up on the roof and he leads you down a dark staircase that you didn't go up while telling you that the school now serves a lot of Afghanis and you know that there are al qaida recruiting places in the middle east and you're imagination starts spiraling into darkness as fast as the staircase and suddenly daylight brings you out of your nightmare where Bin Laden was videotaping your decapitation and showing it on CBS and you get back into the street and then the guy asks for money. That's when you shrug and say, you tricked me and he tries harder and you say i'm sorry no and walk back to the good time you were having before.
The bazaars here have some of the most stunning stuff I've ever seen. They have these incredible carpets that look like paintings and the booths showcasing spices and herbs are so unexpectedly colorful.
Outside of the bazaar we went into a mosque (Regent's Mosque) that boasted a staircase made from a single slab of marble that was brought to Iran from Azerbaijan, a neighboring country. You had to wear a full chador to get inside, but luckily they had some you could borrow so we could go in and look. I must say, I make an adorable, sloppy Muslim.
Persepolis is just outside of Shiraz, so we took a taxi out there early in the moring and that was something to behold. The walk up to it was a wide gravel road, boughaz as expected and hotter than hell, but once we got there the whole trip was worthwhile.
The ruins, which date back to before 500 BC, are massive and back up to a mountain which now holds the sarcophagus of Arteserxes I think. It's unique because the city was built on a foundation of rocks that are easily four stories tall. Like, they stacked up all these rocks and the shaped them and then built their city on top. Some of the rocks were taller than us!
There is carved script that is in three languages throughout the city, so it's kind of like a Rosetta Stone. The museum has deciphered the writing and it's basically a message from the king talking about how he is fair and awards men good fortune based on their character rather than their lineage and how he was a good horseman and swordsman and athlete. People have also left more recent marks on the place by carving their names and the dates they were there. It was neat to see the names and where people hailed from and when. Carvings from 1500s, 1800s, you name it.
The structures themselves are enormous. All that's left of most of the walls is a mound of dirt along the edges, so you really have to use your imagination... if you can wrap your mind around it all. There was at one time a treasury that held all of his gold and silver, a harem that held all of his flesh and bone and a few other rooms that held all of his guests that came to call.
One of the walls is decorated with carvings of what each country in the Persian empire brought to the king (my history here sucks because it was too hot to read all the info, but I do know that like 4 kings lived there, so I'm using king to cover all of them, okay!), and they're all a little different. Like the Afghanis brought a camel and pottery and goats, so there'd be a guide holding an afghani looking guy's hand and three or four other afghanis who had all the presents they were bringing for their king in their hands. There are drawings of all the countries in the empire and their gifts. What was so awesome is that every drawing couldn't have been done by the same sculptor, but everywhere in the city where it was repeated it was identical, like they had a mold or something to carve the stone.
The gates were enormous and it's easy to imagine how imposing this place must have been at its pinnacle. The White House looks like a broom closet compared to Persepolis. I used to think we've come a long way with our civilization, but seeing what they were doing more than 2000 years ago and acknowledging that we could never accomplish something of that magnitude now out of sheer will and determination without any of our technology crutches makes me wonder if we've really come that far.
(a stone well in the side of the mountain... the water was so far down!)
Just down the road from Persepolis are four tombs of other kings, called Naqsh-e Rostam, and another tomb called Naqsh-e Rajab (named after a man who once had a teahouse there). The stone carvings at Rajab depict much beefier types than the one in Persepolis. At Naqsh-e Rostam, you can wander forever looking at the carvings of jousting matches and war scenes. This is the only place I saw any depiction of a woman, and I wouldn't have known it was a woman unless the little info slab told me so.
(she's the queen on the right) We also so a zorastrian temple there, which I think was built so the kings could get into whatever was there eternity. I wonder if Islam incorporates any zoratrian traditions.
That trip to Shiraz and Persepolis was a great trip, sealed by four kisses by the taxi driver who took us to the airport and tried to park and walk us in. I would absolutely love to visit Shiraz again someday. The Hotel Eram was great and the staff was really friendly (yes, that is a plug if you ever make it to Iran). (We didn't have to be temporarily married to stay in the same room together because we have American passports, and they're cool with Americans living in sin.)
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