Iran Attractions

What a way to go - Zoroastrian death rituals in Yazd

Advantages: Absolutely fascinating
Disadvantages: Not for anyone who's none to stable on their feet or freaked out by death

...read a lot about the Towers of Silence and the rituals associated with the disposal of the dead though most typically in the city of Mumbai. Morbid reports are often made in Mumbai suggesting that the vultures in the city drop limbs on the balconies of the posh areas of the city near the Towers after stopping for a snack. I’m not convinced it’s true but it’s the kind of myth that make you want to know more so when we visited Iran in 2006 and I learned ...
...finally getting to see what Towers of Silence were really like. Zoroastrianism in the Desert Zoroastrians account for about 10% of the local population in Yazd – the highest presence in Iran. Historically Yazd has been a city that hid itself away and was missed by marauding invaders and religious ethnic-cleansers alike. Thanks to this the Zoroastrian community was left to their own devices out in the desert for a very long time and escaped ...

koshkha 05.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Towers of Silence, Yazd, Iran

Zorastrianism, Badgirs & Sweaty Wrestlers - the City of Yazd

Advantages: Amazing variety of things you really won't see anywhere else
Disadvantages: Best avoided in the summer months - this is seriously HOT and dry

...are probably NOT thinking 'Hmm, Yazd, that sounds familiar' because to date I don't think I've met anyone who hasn't been to Iran (or thought of going) who's even heard of this fabulous city. It might ring some bells if I mentioned that it was historically known by the rather more glamorous name of Ysatis - yes, as in the perfume by Givenchy. You can't help thinking that when the marketing people at one of France's leading fragrance houses sat down ...
...in chadors when they came up Ysatis. If I were to categorise the cities of Iran in terms of touristic appeal, cities like Esfahan and Shiraz would be the giants of Iranian tourism, Massad and Om the famous centres of religious pilgrimage tourism and poor old Yazd would be the sort of place you might well miss if you were in a bit of a hurry. And that would be a shame, because this bizarre city squeezes a mind-boggling array of attractions into what's ...

koshkha 14.05.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Yazd, Iran

A World Class Collection of Persian Carpets

Advantages: If you love carpets, you'll love this museum
Disadvantages: If you don't, I can promise you'll not be bored

...of each popular type of carpet the way his counterpart in India or Dubai could tell you the price of an ounce of gold. And they invest in carpet the way other countries buy shares, gems or precious metals. In my own more modest and less wealthy way, I share their obsession if not their knowledge though I'm much more in the lower-priced flat-weave realm of rugs and kelims rather than the up-market knotted carpets. No matter where I go in the world, ...
...of a visit to Tehran's Carpet Museum got me quite excited. The opportunity to see the best of the best that Iranian craftsmen have made in the past few hundred years was enough to get my pulse racing and I wasn't disappointed; not one little bit. The Importance of the Carpet Industry Carpet making is also important to the Iranian economy and 10 million people are involved in one way or another in the carpet trade. That baffles my mind for ...

koshkha 22.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Carpet Museum, Tehran

Playing Chicken on the Azadi Roundabout, Tehran

Advantages: Spectacular iconic architecture
Disadvantages: Not somewhere I'd be rushing to at the moment

...can pretty much bet the Azadi Monument will be in the frame. It's big, it's white, it's a very distinctive funky shape like a giant piece of marble origami - what more could you ask for in a symbolic building? At the moment with the shocking events going on in Iran Tehran is on the news more than it has been in years. Sadly - and some would say bizarrely - I don't have a TV during the week so I've not been able to check just how much the Azadi is ...
...review I wrote about the Azadi and give you all a bit of info about MY much more peaceful visit to Tehran's iconic monument. History of the Monument The Azadi Monument was built in 1971 as part of the old Shah's commemorations of the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire. I'm not quite sure which version of the Empire he was thinking of as the first Persian Empire of Darius, Xerxes and co was surely a lot earlier than that. The Shah named ...

koshkha 01.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Azadi Tower, Tehran

A Massive Collection of Regal Bling

Advantages: Spectacular and over the top
Disadvantages: Massively paranoid security systems

The National Jewels Museum in Tehran is located in the basement of the Bank Melli, close to Ferdowski Square. It is without doubt both one of the most impressive and one of the most paranoid museums that I have ever visited and an absolute must-see if you visit Tehran. Blaming Germany for more than just nicking the sunbeds We gathered on the street near the bank, just across the street from the German Embassy. Directly across the road from ...
...killed by poisoned gas during the Iran-Iraq war. The text on the monument tells Germany that Iran will never forget that it was German companies who sold the weapons and technology to Saddam Hussein which he used to kill so many Iranians (and of course, his own people too). Why do I mention this? Well it might be perverse of me but it's one of the things I quite like about the post-Revolutionary Iranian system - they just don't give a damn about ...

koshkha 20.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Treasury of National Jewelery Museum, Iran