From Persepolis to Isfahan: exploring Iran (8 days)

Tehran is a living and growing capital city and as in the recent two centuries, the most important events in the history of the whole country take place here. Tehran with its numerous museums houses the most important collection of recent and remote Persian art and culture. Shiraz, the city of nightingales, poetry and roses is the center of Fars Province. Fars has had a role of great significance in the Iranian civilization. This province is greatly indebted to the settlement of the Achaemenid and Sassanian dynasties for its glorious cultural heritage. Scattered all over the territory of Fars are monuments materializing the rapid progress of the province in both pre-Islamic and Islamic era.

A visit to the ruins of the ancient city of Persepolis is one of the highlights of any trip to Iran. Persepolis is the best preserved of Persia’s ruined cities and the finest legacy of the great Achaemenid Empire which ruled Persia between 559 and 330 BC. The most impressive features of the ruins are the splendid bas-reliefs, which adorn many of the staircases and palaces on the site and provide a rich treasure house of ancient history. At Necropolis you will find the tomb of the three powerful Achaemenian Kings carved into huge rocks overlooking one of the oldest Zoroastrian fire temples. At Pasargad, the first structure you’ll come across is the tomb of Cyrus the Great. Legend has it that when Alexander the Great arrived at Pasargad, he was greatly distressed by the destruction of the tomb and ordered its restoration.

Yazd is still home to Iran’s largest community of Zoroastrians, and the best place to visit an Ateshkadeh (House of Eternal Fire) and the Towers of Silence, the Zoroastrian burial grounds. Although the temple is modern (built in the 1940s), the sacred fire has been burning since 470 AD. Yazd is also an ancient city with its unique desert architecture and its “Badgirs”, the wind towers designed to catch and circulate the merest breath of wind. The mosques of Yazd are like no others and the magnificent Jame Mosque dominates the old city. Its remarkably high, tiled entrance, flanked with two magnificent minarets and adorned with an inscription from the 15th century, is simply superb. This city has always been a great weaving center, known for its silks and other fabrics even before Marco Polo passed through along one of the Silk Routes in the late 13th century.

Isfahan is Iran’s masterpiece, the jewel of ancient Persia and one of the finest cities in the Islamic world. The exquisite blue mosaic tiles of Isfahan’s Islamic buildings, its expansive bazaar and the city’s gorgeous bridges demand as much of your time as you can spare. The history of the city dates back to 2700 years ago. It was the capital of Iran in a number of the post-Islamic periods, but its golden age was during the Safavid dynasty in 17th century. Isfahan with numerous monuments for which it is world-famous has the greatest attractions for tourists. It is really a "musée vivant".

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