Iran - Andrew Burke [217]
Take any bus heading south to Kerman (pick one up at Abuzar Sq) and ask to be dropped at Zein-o-din, or take a savari dar baste for about IR80,000 one way; add IR30,000 per hour waiting time.
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ABARQU
0352 / elev 1510m
This historic town on the road between Yazd and Shiraz is a good off-the-tourist-trail stop. There are several attractions, including a huge ice house, the 11th-century Gonbad Ali dome, the Jameh Mosque and a 4000-plus-year-old cypress tree. The main draw, however, is the Khan-e Aghazadeh, a restored Qajar-era mansion that might one day be a hotel; look for the distinctive two-storey badgir.
The Hotel Pouya Abarkuh (Mehmansar Jahangardi; 682 1030; s/d US$36/48; ), on the left as you come into town from the east, has a decent restaurant and will often charge local rates. Get off any bus between Yazd and Shiraz.
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SHIRAZ
0711 / pop 1,750,000 / elev 1531m
Shiraz is a city of sophistication that has been celebrated as the heartland of Persian culture for more than 2000 years. Known as the Dar-ol-Elm (House of Learning), the City of Roses, City of Love and City of Gardens, Shiraz has become synonymous with education, nightingales, poetry and wine. It was one of the most important cities in the medieval Islamic world and was the Iranian capital during the Zand dynasty (AD 1747–79), when many of its most beautiful buildings were built or restored.
In his 1893 book A Year Amongst the Persians, Edward Browne described Shirazis as ‘…amongst all the Persians, the most subtle, the most ingenious, the most vivacious’. And even in Iran, where regional one-upmanship is common, everyone seems to like Shirazis. This is a city of poets and home to the graves of Hafez and Sa’di, themselves major pilgrimage sites for Iranians. Shiraz is also home to splendid gardens, exquisite mosques and whispered echoes of ancient sophistication that reward those who linger longer than it takes to visit nearby Persepolis.
There are the usual Iranian traffic issues, but Shiraz’s agreeable climate, set as it is in a fertile valley once famed for its vineyards, makes it a pleasant place to visit (except at the humid height of summer or the freezing depths of winter).
History
Shiraz is mentioned in Elamite inscriptions from around 2000 BC and it was an important regional centre under the Sassanians. However, Shiraz did not become the provincial capital until about AD 693, following the Arab conquest of Estakhr, the last Sassanian capital (8km northeast of Persepolis, but now completely destroyed). By 1044 Shiraz was said to rival Baghdad in importance and grew further under the Atabaks of Fars in the 12th century, when it became an important artistic centre.
Shiraz was spared destruction by the rampaging Mongols and Tamerlane because the city’s rulers wisely decided that paying tribute was preferable to mass slaughter. Having avoided calamity, Shiraz enjoyed the Mongol and Timurid periods, which became eras of development. The encouragement of enlightened rulers, and the presence of Hafez, Sa’di and many other brilliant artists and scholars, helped make it one of the greatest cities in the Islamic world throughout the 13th and 14th centuries.
Shiraz remained a provincial capital during the Safavid period, when European traders settled here to export its famous wine. But by the mid-17th century it had entered a long period of decline. This was worsened by several earthquakes, the Afghan raids of the early 18th century, and an uprising led by Shiraz’s governor in 1744, which was put down in typically ruthless fashion after a siege by Nader Shah.
At the time of Nader Shah’s murder in 1747, Shiraz was squalid and its population had fallen to 50,000, a quarter of the number 200 years earlier. But the city soon returned to prosperity. The enlightened Karim Khan, the first ruler of the short-lived Zand dynasty, made Shiraz the national capital in 1750. Despite being master of virtually