Wonders of Iran

Golestan was the seat of the Qajar Dynasty, who ruled Iran for over a century between 1794 and 1925. The complex consists of ornately tiled palaces, ceremonial halls, apartments and gardens ranged around a sunny central courtyard, where you can sip saffron tea and eat delicious Iranian pastries at a café in the shade of citrus and pomegranate trees – the perfect foil for any residual jet lag. Afterwards, admire the breathtaking ‘Hall of Mirrors’, with its sparkling ‘stalactite-style’ arches, and splendid 17^th-century marble throne, one of the great national treasures of Iran.

Shiraz is the capital of southern Iran and has a completely different feel from Tehran and the north. The climate is warmer here, and there is lots more period architecture to enjoy, including a wonderfully atmospheric covered market, whose long, straight streets are lined with arcaded shops selling traditional Shirazi carpets, spices and metalware. We’ll probably fortify ourselves for a stint of shopping with coffee on Vakil Square, one of the city’s more atmospheric meeting places.

Famed over the centuries for its nightingales, poetry and wine, Shiraz has traditionally been regarded Iran’s cultural capital. Two of Persia’s greatest Sufi poets are entombed here, while the famously laid-back locals are proud of their refined parks and gardens, dating from the Zand era of the late 18th century.

After the tombs of the poets, the city’s most iconic sight is the mosque of Nasir al-Molk, whose arched and vaulted reception rooms are bathed in light from multi-coloured stained-glass windows – one of the gems of 19th century Qajar architecture.

Another unmissable sight is the Naranjestan-e Ghavam, an exquisite 19^th-century pavilion set amid some of the country’s loveliest formal gardens. Its basement holds a small but excellent museum, and a shop selling high-quality miniature paintings on camel bone.

Persepolis was the seat of the Achaemenid empire, whose power peaked under Darius I and his son, Xerxes I, but was ultimately brought to a violent halt when Alexander the Great sacked the city in 330BC. Today, its ruins – an assemblage of colossal pillared palaces, throne halls, reliefs, gateways, platforms and tombs fashioned from pale-grey marble – form one of the world’s greatest archaeological treasures. Given the monumental scale of the site, it is amazing to think the great capital lay completely forgotten until the 1930s when excavation work revealed its full extent.

In the morning, before visiting Persepolis, we’ll fit in a visit to the extraordinary necropolis at nearby Naqsh-e Rustam, where a collection of reliefs dating from the Achaemenid, Sassanid and Elamite periods are carved into a cliff face – one of the most awe-inspiring sights of ancient Asia. Burial site of the Persian kings, including Xerxes and Darius II, the tombs were spared destruction by Alexander and have survived the corrosive effects of two-millennia of weather to a remarkable extent. A low hill opposite them provides a marvellous bird's eye view of the site.

Pasargadae was the Achaemenid capital before the foundation of Persepolis, and is famous today as the site of the marble tomb of Cyrus the Great (558–530BC), which sits on a high, stepped plinth on a river plain near the hilltop fortress of Toll e-Takht. Overlooked by most visitors, the monument has retained the lonely serenity enjoyed by Ernst Herzfeld, Aurel Stein and the other archeologists who first explored the region in the early 20th century. Nearby, the dishevelled ruins of a palace, formal gardens and a temple are virtually all that remains of a once splendid city, which lay deserted after the Achaemenid departure for Persepolis.

Among the oldest continuously inhabited urban centres in the world, Yazd is one of Iran’s great highlights due to its dramatic desert setting and well preserved old town – a maze of traditional mud brick and adobe alleys and buildings sprouting a forest of distinctive wind towers, or ‘bagdirs’.

Between visits to its exotic religious monuments, we’ll visit some of the silk and carpet workshops for which the city is renowned. Views over the distinctive skyline are particularly breath-taking at sunset time.

During the Arab invasions of the 7^th century, many Zoroastrians fled to Yazd from neighbouring provinces to escape persecution, later paying a special levy to continue practising their faith freely. To this day, the city retains a sizeable Zoroastrian minority and many pre-Islamic monuments survive, including ancient towers on the outskirts where the dead were disposed of by leaving their bodies to be consumed by vultures. Most of the interest in Yazd, however, lies in its superb Muslim architecture, particularly the Jameh Masjed mosque in the old city, which retains some magnificent mosaic and a formidable pair of glazed-tile minarets

Tonight we’ll dine at dine in the magical gardens of our hotel, with live Iranian music to add to the atmosphere. Afterwards, those who wish may accompany Amrit to a traditional Yazdi gym, or ‘Zhor Khanna’, to watch a display of ‘dumbbell twirling’ (the translation dismally fails to do justice to this extraordinary spectacle, which is  accompanied by a traditional Persian band).

A major desert city with a population of over 75,000, Meybod offers a compelling stopover on the journey from Yazd. Its standout monument is Narenj Castle – a pile of eroded adobe ramparts and bastions lording it in spectacular fashion over the surrounding courtyard houses and lanes. Next to it stands one of our favourite restaurants in the country, where the group will dine on succulent saffron kebabs marinated in walnut and pomegranate juice. The dining hall occupies a wing of an old, beautifully restored caravanserai. Other sections hold stalls selling colourful local weaving products and carpets.

At the start of the old Safavid pilgrimage route across the desert to Mashhad, Naien ranks among the most picturesque small towns in Iran. Its most distinctive building is an ancient mosque with an unusual octagonal minaret, one of the first to be erected in Persia after the Arab invasion.

Isfahan is so packed with astonishing sights it can sometimes be hard to know where to start. But for those with an eye for history, the Jameh Masjed is the obvious first port of call. It was founded well before the Safavid era, sometime in the Umayyad era of the 9^th century, and was added to for over a thousand years.

The Vank Cathedral, on the south side of the city, dates from the era of Shah Abbas the Great, who built it for the Armenian Christians resident in Isfahan, most of whom he’d forcibly resettled in order to give his new capital an economic boost. A vivid sense of how successful and opulent Safavid rule was to become is to revealed on a visit to the sumptuous Chehel Sotoun palace, where the Sha used to host lavish banquets, with performances of music, poetry and dance for visiting dignitaries – as depicted in a fabulous set of murals on its interior walls.

Our second day in Isfahan concentrates on the majestic ensemble of Safavid buildings on  Naqsh-e Jahan (Imam) Square, the focal point of the 17-century Safavid city. We’ll aim to get an early start in order to see Lotfollah Mosque before the large bus parties descend. Representing the pinnacle of Safavid architecture, its ornately embellished interior was reserved for the exclusive use of the royal family, unlike the larger and grander Shah Masjed on the south side of the piazza, which was open to all.

In the afternoon, after lunch at a traditional restaurant off the main square, we’ll explore the ornately decorated Ali Qapu Palace, from where Shah Abbas used to watch polo matches and parades in, before visiting workshops dedicated to jewellery making, enamelling and miniature painting.

Set against its backdrop of rugged desert mountains, with a foreground of poplar trees and fruit orchards, the red-brick village of Abyaneh forms one of the signature sights of central Iran. The spread of cuboid houses, which spill in dramatic fashion down the sides of a low hill, grew up after the Arab invasions of the 8th century when Zoroastrian refugees settled here, and retains a unique feel.

Locals speak a dialect with close resemblance to ancient Persian tongues, while instead of the usual black ‘chador’, the women wear white headscarves enlivened with bright floral patterns. You’ll receive a particularly warm welcome; expect invitations to take tea in a local home as you’re walking around the narrow, cobbled streets.

Kashan is renowned both for its crop of grand, 19th-century residences (known in Farsi as ‘khanehs’), and as the home of Iran’s finest Persian garden, the UNESCO-listed Bagh-e Fin. The latter was laid out in the late 16th century, and centres on char-bagh-style crossed rills fed with water supplied from the nearby mountains by an ancient qanat system of underground pipes. Nestled under the trees are exquisite pavilions are exquisite pavilions, a historic bathouse and tomb.

The town’s bazaar is the oldest in Iran, and a fantastic place for observing craftsmen at work, particularly knife makers. You’ll also see embroiders, carpet weavers and purveyors of rose petal products, from tea to perfume.

The underground city of Nushabad, just outside Kashan, was excavated in the 12^th century as a response to the Mongol invasions. A network of tunnels, accessed through wells in local people’s houses, were cut to a depth of 18 metres and supplied by air vents and freshwater springs, enabling their inhabitants to remain hidden for up to 10 days at a stretch – long enough to evade the attentions of any marauding army.  Amazingly, their existence was completely forgotten about until a few years ago when the passages were rediscovered by chance. The site makes a fascinating excursion from Kashan, hinting at the apocalyptic mood that prevailed in the era of Genghis Khan.

The second most sacred place in Iran after Mashhad, Qom lies a few hours’ drive southwest of Tehran and is revered by Shia Muslims as the site of Fatima’s shrine, the Hazrat-e Ma’sumeh, whose golden dome and twin minarets tower over the city. Foreign women must wear full chadors to enter (provided free of charge). Our groups often site this as among the highlights of the trip, not least because of the charming, English-speaking clerics who act as guides and happily answers questions about the site, and Shia Islam in general.