(Daniel) Soon we would begin the last leg of our journey through Iran. We planned to prepare from a hotel, and so headed into town to one that had been recommended to us by the owners of the Silk Road. On inspection the place was pretty horrible. Instead we decided to leave it fate, and began the days activities. First on the list was the ruins of Persepolis, via a quick stop for breakfast at a fast food joint on the way out of town.
The road to Persepolis was confusing, but eventually we found the avenue, purpose built for the tourist season. Although this place, or at least the name was familiar to me, I didn’t really know what to expect. As we drove up to the main car park, I could see that this is one place in Iran that draws a serious crowd in high season. With a huge car park and visitor complex this must be the countries main international tourist spot. There is even a campsite on the boulevard leading to the complex.
After buying parking and our tickets to enter the site, we walked up to the main steps, two grand stairways climbing to a pair of huge statues of horses that mark the entrance to Persopolis. On the statues people have carved their names, not recently, but as far back as 1840, most of these names are of infantry and horse men from the British army, and I am sure that these ruins must have been an impressive sight during those times, especially when the car park and tourist complex wasn’t here!
After the horse statues, the ruins are quite run down, but once you climb the hill to a huge temple built into the rockface, you can get more of a feel for the size and grandeur of the place. With rooms that contained hundreds of pillars, you can imagine shady deals and liaisons happening behind each stone archway, and how many historic decisions passed through these hallowed halls. We walked around taking plenty of photos, with the sun shining, as we have now reached the most southerly point to date.
After having our fill of the ruins, we returned to the Wolf, and drove back to the tourist campsite. Although the camping was closed we persuaded the manager to let us camp, and parked up in a secluded spot at the rear of the site. However after about 15 minutes, the manager returned and explained that we were to camp in the carpark, I really wasn’t happy about this, but the others didn’t seem to mind, so we moved to the far less idyllic tarmac! We then walked to a restaurant closeby and ate more kebabs (yes we are getting a it sick of kebabs now!) before heading back to the campsite.
In the evening, we sat in the garden drinking tea and smoking a waterpipe, Rowan and Gabby taught me how to play Casino, and so for the record the score is currently Rowan 17, Gabby 11 and me 15.