Iran - Andrew Burke [110]
Other useful domestic services :
Causeways almost cross Lake Orumiyeh’s narrow waist. When linked by a new bridge (nearing completion), Orumiyeh–Tabriz bus travel times will radically reduce. Already Tabriz-bound savaris (IR40,000) use this short cut taking a small ferry (15 minutes, no buses) across the last unbridged section. As vehicle queues can be long, it’s faster to take a savari/taxi to the eskele (ferry pier; IR8000/24,000, one hour), nip onto the ferry (open 7am to 10pm) as a passenger (free) and continue to Tabriz by a different savari from the far dock (IR20,000, 1½ hours). Ferry services reduce or get cancelled in windy weather.
From the Sero terminal (Mirza Shirazi St) minibuses run to villages of the Gonbadchay Valley, turning north 6km before the border. Taxis to Sero cost IR40,000 from outside.
Getting Around
The airport is 13km up the Salmas highway (taxi IR20,000, 20 minutes). The most useful shuttle-taxi routes run from Faqiyeh Sq, either along Imam Ave then down Kashani St or up Taleqani St to the terminal. Savaris to Bandar-e Golmankhaneh lakeside (IR5000, 20 minutes) leave from the corner of Valiasr and Haft-e Tir Blvds on summer weekends.
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AROUND ORUMIYEH
Hasanlu
0443 / pop 400
The muddy hillock rising behind Hasanlu village was once an important Iron Age settlement that gradually developed into a fortified citadel over 4000 years. Mutilated skeletons found here suggest that the population met a barbaric end at the hands of the Urartians in the 9th century BC. Archaeologists also unearthed a famous 11th-century BC golden chalice here. But all you’ll see today at the unfenced site are the wall stumps of former dwellings and storehouses (plastered for protection with straw-flecked adobe) along with a few standing stones that were probably gateways. The wide peaceful panoramas of fields and hay-topped village roofs are pleasant, but 20 minutes here is ample for most non-specialists.
The site is 7km from Naqadeh (IR20,000 return by taxi) to which minibuses run when full from Orumiyeh and Mahabad. Alternatively, if driving the Orumiyeh–Mahabad road via Mohammad Yar it’s an 8km detour, the last 2km unsurfaced after Shonagar.
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CROSSING THE IRAN–IRAQ BORDER
Much of Iraq is verging on civil war, with visitors risking kidnap or worse. However, conditions are less dire in the northernmost area of Iraqi Kurdistan, which has been virtually independent from Baghdad since the early 1990s. The Haj Omran border post near Piranshahr, southwest of Naqadeh, has twice been declared open (and later closed), but in principle you can currently get a visa on arrival here for Iraqi-Kurdistan (NOT valid for Baghdad or south Iraq). However, nothing can be taken for granted. Check the latest situation on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree forum (www.lonelyplanet.com).
Borders at Mehran (accessed via Ilam) and Khosravi (via the oasis town of Qasr-e-Shirin) remain popular with bomb-dodging Iranian pilgrim buses heading for the great Shiite shrine cities of Karbala and Najaf. However, both have reportedly been down-graded to ‘locals-only’ crossings.
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Mahabad
0442 / pop 168,000
Incredibly, this unassuming market city was once the capital of its own mini-country. The Mahabad Republic was a Soviet-inspired independent Kurdish state, but it survived only one year (1946), collapsing once the USSR patched things up with Tehran. In the 17th century, as Savajbulaq Mokri, Mahabad had been the regional capital. Kurdish cummerbunds and baggy trousers tell you this is somewhere different but the only ‘sight’ is a fine if over-restored Jameh Mosque in the ramshackle bazaar.
Extensively refurbished in 2006, the comfortable Hotel Kohestan (Koystan; 233 5738; Shahid Kandi; s/tw IR140,000/175,000) is halfway