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| Fin garden |
We are staying in
Kashan for just one night, from where the
Three Wise Men are traditionally
said to have set off for
Bethlehem to visit the infant Jesus. The town is also famous for its ceramics, and the manufacture of expensive silks and
carpets for the
Safavid Court.
Tourists now come here to visit the rather fantastic merchant houses and the
impressive
Persian Bagh-e Fin or
Fin
Gardens.
The morning as usual dawns bright and sunny and soon we are
in the Fin Gardens – very close to our hotel – and
they are really very lovely. We have traditional tea and Iranian biscuits
served with style in a garden café there – peaceful and relaxing. The
coffee/tea houses here are in a similar style to those experienced on our 2013 visit to South
East Turkey at Dana with traditional "beds" to relax upon. There are
some very grand houses in Kashan with equally grand furniture shops selling
ornate gilded chairs, settees and stair rails and the young people at least are
very friendly and chatty and want selfies with us. By contrast an older woman
is seen washing clothes in the street side irrigation channel or jub and we
pass a motor cycle laden with pomegranates stacked high in lovely wool panniers,
the machine being driven by the father with his wife and child clinging on
precariously behind him.
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| Tappeh Sialkh 5000 BCE |
We have lunch at the same restaurant as last night – it is
very full today but still copes well and the food is just as good. A few of us
walk up the road to see from the outside the archaeological site
Tappeh Sialkh,
dating back to the 5th Millennium BCE, perhaps earlier, with evidence of different
very early human settlements and the use of an early potter's wheel. Stained
red human remains and the vestiges of their stone, mud and wood dwellings have
been found here and outlines of the settlement can still be seen. Some pottery from
the site is in the
National Museum Tehran which we shall see tomorrow. Sadly we
had no time to actually buy tickets to enter the site and view it properly. I
think McCabe should consider including this on any future trip.
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| Khaneh Tabatabiyeh |
We are now on the final leg of our journey on the road to
Tehran. It is 26 degrees.
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Khaneh Tabatabiyeh two doorknockers
for men, and women/children! |
The land is agricultural outside
Kashan, and it is mostly
rose fields, but there are also many pomegranate vendors in the lay bys as we
leave the town. The landscape is flat, and it soon becomes quite arid as far as
we can see to the east, with mountains to the west. There are golden domed
mosques in a local village, and many more
qanats are visible on the plain in
the distant, evidence of the ancient water irrigation system below. I see the
first sign of poly tunnel cultivation and some very curious rock formations.
The atmosphere is getting murkier – with smog perhaps? It seems quite cloudy
and we have clearly left behind the beautiful deep blue skies of the south.
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| Khaneh Tabatabiyeh |
This is the least interesting leg of our drive and the
motorway is not the smoothest of surfaces. We pass through an area of low
mountains on each side but are soon back on the plain. Qom is 35 km away – there
are large flocks of goats being herded at the side of the road, with much
arable farming activity as well, more pomegranate bushes, some very
sophisticated irrigation channels, sweet corn fields, old tractors and other
fairly basic and old farm implements along with stacked straw bales seen in
farm compounds – also I fear much evidence of factory farming. There is a herd
of camels at the side of the motorway – I just manage to catch a fleeting
photo!
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| five door room in Khaneh Tabatabiyeh |
The traffic now is the
busiest we have seen it.
Qom
looks huge and the atmosphere murky. It is the second most sacred place in
Iran after
Mashhad.
Pilgrims and tourists alike flock here to see the
shrine of Fatima
sister of the eighth imam, Imam Reza, who died here in 816CE. The golden dome
and twin minarets are said to dominate the skyline but I do not see them from
the coach and we are passing by straight on to
Tehran.
Soon we stop at a huge
shopping mall for a comfort break – Adidas outlet store is prominent as we
drive into the car park – a family have settled down in a marked parking bay
for their picnic – the usual rug on the ground – shoes on its perimeter – food
spread out! Imagine that in the UK
at Ikea! There is a sparkling 1950s Chevrolet in the entrance foyer attracting
a great deal of interest.
The mall is very grand –
with plenty of shops and quite the poshest loos on the whole trip – spotless
and we feel even our footprints are being dusted away behind us! We have a
picnic set up by the coach before moving on – the driver cutting up a huge water
melon to share amongst us. It’s still 26 degrees outside - very
pleasantly warm but murky. The air now is noticeably polluted and not nice
at all.
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| Camels! |
We are on the last leg of
the journey to
Tehran.
The view is of desert all around us – with the huge salt lake visible to the east.
I find the pollution tough on my chest, just recovering as I am from a very bad
cold and cough. I feel the same gloom approaching
Tehran
as I felt on our way into
Athens
last year. I am not comfortable in large cities – although found
Athens surprisingly
agreeable. I hope the same applies for
Tehran.
The motorway here has many
break down trucks along the way, waiting for their summonses to help cars in
need. Our first sign of the city is the airport and the traffic now is pretty
bad – it takes quite a while to get through it to our hotel.
We were going to see the Ayatollah
Khomeini monument tonight – but we are running late and it will be very busy
being Friday. So we pass it by and we will see it on the way to the airport on
Sunday instead.
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| our water melon picnic |
We eat in the hotel in Tehran- the
meal is poor for us all, the usual salads, kebabs, (the meat is reconstituted)
and some very uninspiring vegetables and chips for me. The crème caramel is the
highlight - the Iranian creme caramel rarely disappoints my sweet tooth!
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| 1950s Chevrolet at Tehran shopping mall |
The hotel fortunately has
good triple glazing as I cannot hear the dreadful traffic from the street
far below. Opening the window, I am hit in equal measure by the smell and the
noise. I shut it again quickly. The room is large, clean comfortable and
chintzy with the usual
Mecca
sign in the corner of the ceiling. Everything under the sun is supplied in the
basket of goodies in the bathroom – except shower gel which I need. No tea and
coffee facilities in the room - surprising perhaps for a hotel of this calibre
but there is 24 hour coffee available in the foyer apparently but I didn’t test
this.
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| curious rock formation road to Tehran |
Tomorrow we have a full day
in
Tehran -
with even more treasures to see before we have to think about travelling home.
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