All About Iran

Known in the past as Persia, this fascinating land, cradle of a civilisation that left its best in the testimonies of Persepolis; in one of the most beautiful cities of the Islamic world, Isfahan, called the jewel of ancient Persia, with its refined mosaics of blue tiles covering its religious buildings, its splendid bridges. Shiraz, cradle of Persian culture and poetry, which became for a certain period the capital under the Zand dynasty, and which not by chance today houses the tombs of the greatest poets of the era, Hafez and Sa'di. The old Yazd, emerging from the desert with its historic centre, the oldest in the country, its alleys, wind towers, built with mud and straw and known since antiquity as a textile centre, on the famous Silk Road route.

Other less famous but no less important centres, such as Kashan, known in the past for the production of fabrics and ceramics, destroyed several times, and which became important during the Seljuk period. A land of very ancient human settlements dating back to the 4th century BC; today many buildings remain as evidence of the past, in particular the houses of wealthy merchants from the Qajar era, adorned with stuccoes, pools and badgir for cooling the environment. Bam, once considered the pearl of Iran, the fortress and citadel built entirely of mud and straw, which the 2003 earthquake destroyed very visibly; this jewel is today being rebuilt, but tourism no longer reaches it, in this desolate land of Balochistan, where the laws are circumvented by a thriving drug-trafficking trade, and where it is mandatory to travel under armed escort.

Qom, the second holy city of Iran and seat of the fundamentalist clergy, from where the revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini began, a place of pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Fatemeh, sister of Imam Reza, located in the centre of Hazrat-e Masumeh square, a melting pot of humanity mingled with mullahs and students. Mashhad, the holy city of the country par excellence — its meaning being 'place of martyrdom' — where Imam Reza, a direct descendant of Muhammad, died; this place is not just a mosque or sanctuary, but a complex of buildings, mosques and sacred places, to which more are continually being added. An important centre of Shia pilgrimage, 12 million pilgrims flock here every year. Iran, a fabulous land, a wonderful people — helpful, generous; it may not be an example of democracy, but neither is it one of terror as Western media describe it.

You are literally pampered by its population, admired, wherever you come from, they do not see in you whether you are European, American or other, but a person to host, to talk with, etc. Welcome the 'rogue states' of this sort; thank you Iran for letting me live this beautiful journey, you will always be in my heart.