Iran - Andrew Burke [111]
Return to beginning of chapter
LAKE ORUMIYEH
Like the Dead Sea, huge Lake Orumiyeh (6000 sq km) is so super-salty that you just can’t sink. A Unesco Biosphere Reserve since 1976, it’s becoming increasingly shallow (maximum seasonal depth 16m) now that the Zarinarud, a major feeder river, has been diverted to slake Tabriz’s growing thirst. Some worry that the lake will soon be as dead as the Aral Sea. Currently the only life-form it supports directly is the very primitive, virtually transparent artimesia worm. But that’s enough to attract plenty of seasonal migratory birds, notably flamingos (spring). And the worms are commercially harvested for fish-meal.
Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of Iran’s Ilkhanid Mongol dynasty, had his treasury on Kabudi Island in the middle of the lake. His burial there in 1265 was accompanied by the wholesale sacrifice of virgins, as demanded by the custom of the day. Tourist access is limited to occasional one-off Friday excursions organised by ALP Tours in Tabriz.
The lake’s hard-to-access eastern coastline is starkly barren; the vivid blue waters contrast with jagged, sun-blasted rocks and parched mud-flat islands. The western coast is greener but orchards stop well short of the shore.
Of a few lakeside ‘resorts’, the most upmarket is stylishly modern Bari ( 0433-322 2960; www.bari.ir; s/d US$110/160; ), where water is deep enough for floating. Boat rides cost from IR80,000. It’s 2km from Qushchu village. More accessible Bandar-e Golmankhaneh is a 2km strip of mud flats 17km from Orumiyeh where local boy-racers burn Paykan rubber showing off to a crowd of summer weekenders. It’s eerily lonely and atmospheric on a stormy winter’s day.
Return to beginning of chapter
MARAQEH
0421 / pop 173,000
While briefly capital of Ilkhanid Iran (from 1255), Maraqeh (Maragheh, Maraga) boasted the medieval world’s greatest observatory. Here brilliant mathematician Nasruddin Tusi (Nasir al-Tusi) accurately calculated the diameter of the earth, centuries before the Western world even guessed it was round. On a windswept hill 3km northwest of town, a modern observatory (rasad-khana; closed to public) occupies the site where the original was destroyed during Tamerlane’s ravages.
Of several fine tomb towers scattered round town, most interesting is the square-plan Gonbad-e Sorkh topped by a squinch-pinched octagon. An upper window-hole is positioned such that sunlight shines directly onto the inner doorway at spring equinox. In nearby gardens, Gonbad-e Arqala (Arg-tomb; Khayyam St; admission free; 8am-2pm & 4-6pm, till 7.30pm summer) is an attractive, domed, stone building housing a fine collection of gravestones and pre-Islamic totems.
The lovely Gonbad-e Kabul (Dark Dome) is thought to be the tomb of Hulagu Khan’s mum. It’s attractively dotted with blue-tiled inlay but let down by its backdrop of school buildings and a shopping centre.
The squat Gonbad-e Qaffariyeh (Dezhban St) sits forlornly in a riverside garden with a tacky trio of concrete dolphins.
Mosaferkhaneh Tehran Noh ( 222 7368; Taleqani St; dm/tw/tr IR20,000/50,000/70,000, showers IR5000) is basic but survivable with hospital-style beds and bare light bulbs.
Great free maps are available to guests at the comfortable if outwardly very 1970s Darya Hotel ( 325 0304; www.darya-hotel.com, in Farsi; Shekari Blvd; s/d/ste US$35/45/65), two minutes’ walk west of the bus terminal.
To reach Tabriz choose from savari (IR25,000, 1¾ hours), bus (IR6000, 2½ hours, twice hourly) or train. For Takht-e Soleiman savari-hop via Bonab (IR2000, 25 minutes) or Miyando’ab (IR15,000, 1½ hours).
Return to beginning of chapter
AROUND MARAQEH
Bonab
0412 / pop 72,000
Bonab is known for bicycles and atomic research (don’t go snooping around its northern ‘nuclear’ suburbs).