zoroastrian – Traveling Epic!

Persian Persepolis Road Trip Shiraz to Esfahan Iran

January 14, 2017May 7, 2018Posted in Adventure, Extreme, Photography, TravelTagged ancient persian kings, Iran, Persia, travel, zoroastrian9 Comments

Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550–330 BC). It is situated 60 km northeast of the city of Shiraz in Fars Province, Iran. The earliest remains of Persepolis date back to 515 BC

I shouldn’t be one to give advice on where to go or where not to go, because I really see the world differently than the average person sitting at home wondering where to go on vacation. People judge a place based on politics and past events. I judge a place after visiting it and spending time with the people. I find much of the warnings that people pass on are really unfounded for so many places in our amazing little world. Really, Persia, Iran WOW! Amazing. Mind blowing stuff. Thanks Obama for making this possible. In 2008 I met a fellow technology enthusiast at a conference in Dubai who had an English Father and Persian Mother. He grew up in Iran. He invited me to visit. The next time I’d come to the Persian Gulf about a year later I’d exhausted every method I could find on any website to get a valid visa to visit Iran. I even found a professor at Berkeley who had a special program, but in the end I didn’t have the visa, but I was able to get an invitation. Unfortunately no matter what I tried I could not get in. After refused entry I boarded my plane back to Dubai and spent 4 hours at security in Dubai airport at the end of a 36 hour day trying to explain to security that I sincerely felt like my invitation and lack of visa was a good enough reason to be allowed to visit. The Visa desk in Tehran explained there was no way he’d be allowed to let me enter without a visa. No matter what my techy friend would say, there wasn’t a way to make it happen.

Couple more interesting things: “Normally they ask us to start the process two months before passenger trip and if they send the documents sooner they don’t start the visa process till two months before the trip.”

At the time, this was correct, it is subject to change…

Interests Section of Islamic Republic of Iran

2209 Wisconsin Ave. NW

Washington, DC 20007

Tel :202-965-4990

Fax:202-965-1073

Email: info@daftar.org www.daftar.org

Office hours: 8:00 am – 4:30 pm (except for official Holidays)

Customer Service Representatives can speak with you Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 8:00pm EST.

Then after Obama made that agreement, doors opened. I was able to not only line up a travel company, but was able to get a visa through the Pakistan Consulate. In fact, I found a half dozen tour companies that were willing to take me around. I ultimately went with one that wasn’t an American one, and was one that met the price point. They were on the list of approved companies. For American’s you can’t just show up, and you can’t just get a visa and visit. You have to go on an organized tour, but this tour was not exactly your typical Japanese tourist bus or the leader with the umbrella. We were able to say where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see and it was off the charts fantastic!! As you can tell from the title, we flew into Shiraz and spend a few days there, then visited Persepolis, and then went on to Isfahan.

Travel Itinerary:

Day 1

Shiraz: arrive at the airport transfer to the hotel and dinner.

Day 2

Full day city tour of Shiraz including Zandiyeh Complex(Bath,

Castle, Bazaar,Mosque/Ali Ebn Hamze Shrine, Hafez tomb,

Naranjestan garden, Eram garden

Day 3

Shiraz-Isfahan: drive to Isfahan via Persepolis, Naqshe rostam

and Naqshe rajab and Pasargade

Day 4

Isfahan: Full day city tour of Isfahan including Imam Complex (

Ali Qapu palace , Shah and Sheikh lotfollah, Khajoo and Sio She

pol bridges

Day 5

Isfahan: full day city tour of Isfahan to visit Vank cathedral,

Jame mosque and chehel sotoun palace, Fire temple

The Most Beautiful and Peaceful Places in the World

After the visit. I’ll never be the same. It wasn’t any one place. It was the people, the faith, the diversity… yes really. Armenian Christian, Old Zoroastrians, Young Jews,

Our wheels. One day in Esfahan we decided to get closer to the people, so for a couple bucks we were on bikes. This wasn’t the only amazing bridge in this old incredible city. Found something you wouldn’t find in many other places. Found a guy singing at the top of his lungs in under the bridge. He wasn’t a crazy guy, he was a popular singer… Everyone loved it!

Relaxing on a nice cool day.

Modern Zoroastrian Temple we tracked down… Super cool place. Yep it’s a fire temple still in use!! We had a very interesting talk with the Zoroastrian Priest

Atashgah – Ancient Zoroastrian Fire temple overlooking Esfahan. This religion is the oldest monotheistic religion in the world.

Kabeh-e Zarthusht – Cube of Zoroaster, Naqsh-e Rustam, near Shiraz in Iran. This building is still a mystery. Is it connected to the Zoroastrianism religion?

Naqsh-e Rostam

Tombs of the great Kings of Persia! Fantastic!! These are bucket list items. Definitely a must see in Persepolis outside of Shiraz. The great Persian Kings from thousands of years ago really left their mark. This really is the equivalent to the pyramids left by the kings of Persia and you can just imagine how magnificent they were in their heyday.

Xerxes, Cyrus, Darius… Amazing still very popular.

Persepolis

Grand entrance to the Palace of the Persian Empire

Ancient Ruins of Persepolis

It’s been 2500 years since the world was making their offerings to the Persian Kings of the vast empire. With the pictures of the offering chiseled in stone it’s easier to imagine. From a Christian perspective of history, it’s amazing how many of these kings stories in the bible contain these kings.

Don’t let anyone tell you that Iran is a desert that doesn’t have anything worth saving. It’s definitely the opposite. Amazing people, amazing culture, and under rated in so many areas. Fantastic country that has a very rich culture.

I will admit I did see a couple of concerning things. I saw a Down with America sign at the police station where a heavily armed guard was standing. He didn’t seem interested in us, but at this same time we got the opposite experience from the people. They didn’t seem to care really. Showing up during the beginning of the negotiations, the people would ask us… “Why do you hate us?” I don’t hate them. I’m trying to understand them just as I would any state. Politics these days are nasty. If the people everywhere can understand on main street people are much more down to earth and open and interested in the people and culture. Here in Southern California I find a lot of Persian people, with access to persian foods and a wide variety of attitudes that provide diversity.

Americans? Why do you hate us? We don’t hate you…

Really there’s a lot we have in common include a can of Coke.

In this world, we have a lot to contribute and thank the Persians in our modern society. Cyrus allowed the Hebrews to continue living and worshiping as they chose, we know this not only from the bible, but from the writings on the clay tablets. Rather than destroy local economies for their own selfish gain, the Persians worked to increase trade.

Top 10 Must See in Baku Azerbaijan: Fire Temple, Mud Volcano, and Early Man sites

November 3, 2014November 3, 2014Posted in Asia, Eastern Europe, Tourism, Travel, Travel Tips, UNESCO, VideoTagged ateshgah, azerbaijan, baku, fire temple, volcano, zoroastrian3 Comments

In my quest to visit every country I wasn’t sure what to expect with Azerbaijan. What looked like a small country with a checkered past sprinkled with war and conflict with Armenia. I was definitely interested in learning about the people, the culture and learning what Azerbaijan had to offer the world and for fellow travelers. I wasn’t disappointed, in fact I was blown away with the treasures of this land.

What I found was fantastic. Azerbaijan is a very culturally rich country with a deep past. A former soviet block country with it’s own history and it’s own identity, Azerbaijan is rich. Rich culturally and figuratively with oil and very culturally rich.

Baku is in and of itself a stand out city that should be held up against the greatest in the region in comparison with Dubai and Doha .

1. Baku Zoroastrian Fire Temple – Ateshgah of Baku.

The Temple of Fire “Ateshgah” on the List of World Heritage Sites, UNESCO. It’s been a museum since 1975. The fires use to come out of the top of the 4 corners. This fascinating fire temple was a place of worship long ago and most of the history before 1700 has been lost.

In front of the fire temple

This recreated piece shows what it would have been like, complete with Zoroastrian pilgrims and Persians

Modern Baku – Baku is a fascinating city with many modern buildings that would boggle the mind. I thought I was in Dubai or Qatar when I started seeing the array of modern, brilliant and fantastic architectures.

2. Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center

– amazing example of modern architecture. The white building is a major landmark in the heart of Baku City. The immaculately white building comes in the shape of waves. It is no doubt an impressive structure and an great achievement in field of modern architecture and engineering. I can’t imagine trying to make the bricks for this. No lines are straight!

3. Baku Flame Towers

is a striking new addition to the skyline of Baku. Located atop a hill on the Caspian Sea overlooking Baku Bay and the old city center, the three towers were inspired by Azerbaijan’s ancient history of fire worshipping, and will illuminate the city and act as an eternal flame for modern Baku. 190 Meters… towering above old town.

4. World’s 2nd Largest Flag Pole – National Flag Square –

The flag square is one end of the boardwalk, so really you’re just on one end of the Caspian sea and 5K walk through the park across the street from the Old Town.

The flag you see was the largest in the world until Dushanbe Tajikistan took it over by just 3 meters. Big flag.

I suggest you either take the

5. Steps for City View Funicular and night time viewing of the Flame Towers

up to the top to get a close up view, or ask your taxi or driver to take you to the steps shown to get a close up view of the Flame Towers. This is a must see spectacle lighting up the night sky with fires.

6. Must See Sunrise and Caspian Sea and seaside boardwalk

Baku is a beautiful city, and walking along the seaside boardwalk and heading for a jog at sunrise is incredible. Beautiful sunrise creeping up over the Caspian sea. You can see the oil residue in the water. It’s not appealing, but the jog or walk along the the sea side can’t be beat. I recommend Milli Park, which is right near the Maiden tower, which is in Old Town. So very easy to combine visits to a bunch of this stuff.

Seaside Boulevard was opened in May 2012 and extends from the ‘Baku Sports Palace’ (Bakı İdman Sarayı) to the ‘National Flag Square’.

7. Mud Volcanoes

– The worlds mud volcanoes are in large part in Azerbaijan. They say that more than 50% of the worlds mud volcanoes are in this country. I don’t doubt it. It hasn’t become the tourist attraction it deserves. We had the whole place to ourselves. Our driver really didn’t want to take us in his nice car, but we twisted his arm and the offroad dirt roads he took to get there, I now understand his hesitation. It was probably my favorite thing we did there. The mud was bubbling up creating cinder cones of mud, we played around. It’s not hot to the touch, in fact it was cool. Very strange and fascinating world.

8. Gobustan Early man site and Petroglyphs – UNESCO world heritage site.

Early man carved out these holes to capture water for drinking.

Gobustan Rock Art – outstanding collection of more than 6,000 rock engravings bearing testimony to 40,000 years of rock art. The site also features the remains of inhabited caves, settlements and burials, all reflecting an intensive human use by the inhabitants of the area during the wet period that followed the last Ice Age, from the Upper Paleolithic to the Middle Ages. The invading armies of Alexander the Great and Trajan also left some interesting grafitti. We didn’t find this on our journey… may have been inside the gated area, but we really enjoyed what we saw. So much there, but you’d likely need a guide to get off the route and see more.

There were a lot of petrogliphys. We did the self guided tour, and later stopped in the museum that’s near the entrance of the park. It was fascinating to see. We combined seeing the mud volcanoes and the petrogylphys and early man stuff in Gobustan.

Walking through the center of town you’ll find a fascinating walking street through the town. Be sure to take the underground walk ways when you encounter busy streets and obey the traffic signs. The cars won’t stop for you. There are lots of fountains and fascinating things to view walking through the city.

9. Old City and Maiden’s Tower – Old City (a UNESCO World Heritage site)

First thing to see in the city and likely where you should stay near… this mysterious and eccentric tower was built somewhere between the 7th and 12th centuries and may have served as a fire beacon, defensive fortification, astronomical observatory, or Zoroastrian temple

Old City Baku

If you like Sports… check out the 2015 European Games planning on Baku Azerbaijan as the host. They are getting state of the art stadiums to host the games.

10. Bibi-Heybat Mosque –

The Bibi-Heybat Mosque is a historical mosque in Baku, Azerbaijan. The existing structure, built in the 1990s, is a recreation of the mosque with the same name built in the 13th century by Shirvanshah Farrukhzad II Ibn Ahsitan II, which was completely destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936. The Bibi-Heybat Mosque includes the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum (a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad), and today is the spiritual center for the Muslims of the region and one of the major monuments of Islamic architecture in Azerbaijan.

What I missed, that I wanted to see.

Go and enjoy the oil baths of Naftalan. Seriously baths of crude oil… petrol!

The Baku Airport is one of the few in the world offering flights to Nakhchivan and travelers heading that way should book a flight from here. My friend Michael who traveled with me was able to fit it in and spent a good day there.