Muscat, Oman, to Shiraz, Iran

23 - 25 May 2008

No shiraz in Shiraz

We drank a cappuccino in a café while waiting for the Shater Abbas Restaurant to open at 8 p.m. Then it was a lamb kebab dinner (probably the first of many), with a tasty barley soup and salad to start with. And, of course, there’s no shiraz wine to be had in Shiraz, or any other alcoholic beverage for that matter. The withdrawal symptoms are not too painful, however, since no one else is drinking wine either.

24 May. A friendly taxi driver (Mahmood Bahmani), whom we had met at the airport yesterday, came to our hotel at 7:30 to drive us to Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam. Persepolis was a palace complex built between 500 and 300 BC. Originally it was called Parsa, but the Greeks, who invaded and destroyed the city in 331 BC, named it Persepolis and the name has stuck ever since. It is an impressive site with loads of sculptures, towering stone columns and stairways. Overlooking it all are a couple of king’s tombs carved into the surrounding rocky hills. Then we visited nearby Naqsh-e Rajab with its bas-reliefs of coronations. We completed the tour at Naqsh-e Rostam, which contains another 4 tombs hewn out of a cliff, dating from BC. Below the tombs, are reliefs from the Sassanian period (about 250 AD) depicting scenes of imperial conquests and royal investitures.
By midday it was getting too hot and dusty to wander round ruins and we were hungry. Mahmood took us to a nearby restaurant by a cool fountain. Flemming ordered a dish that was supposed to contain egg plant, but when it arrived it was just another kebab with a bit of salad and rice. Angela was more successful with her zereshk polo ba morq dish of chicken in a sauce and rice with tangy barberry fruit on top. And we both enjoyed the nun (unleavened bread), accompanied by fresh green herbs.
Then it was back to the hotel for a siesta before venturing out to Mausoleum of Hafez. Hafez was a 14th century poet and is an Iranian folk-hero, still loved and revered today. We enjoyed strolling round the charming garden and watching the Iranians pay homage to the great man.