Iran - Andrew Burke [275]
Getting Around
The airport is 15km northeast (IR15,000 by taxi). Shuttle taxis (IR750) start from relevant points around Sa’at Sq. For the bus terminal, use eastbound cars along 18 Dey St that swing north at Golha Sq. For the train station, jump out at the southern end of Artesh Blvd where southbound vehicles turn left.
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AROUND SARI
Sari to Tehran
From formless Qa’emshahr, another over-busy mountain road climbs up towards the Iranian plateau via Firuzkuh. Scenery starts lush and forested with distant white-topped peaks on the horizon. South of Pol-e-Sefid it rises through deep valleys and many a tunnel, shadowing the incredible trans-Alborz railway. Building that line was one of the most incredible engineering achievements of the 1930s, as much a political statement by Reza Shah as a means of transport. Arguably it’s more attractive to look at the line switchbacking up the steep valleys than to actually take the train. The classic glimpse is the 66m-span stone bridge, 110m above Veresk village.
Around 15km south of Pol-e Sefid, a peaceful side road branches off towards Shahmirzad. Scenery is lovely apart from a few unsightly quarries, but there’s an unpaved section and a single, rather deep ford. No public transport.
Alasht
0124 / pop 4000
Commanding a wonderfully wide panorama of wooded ridges and peaks across a deep mountain valley, Alasht is an increasingly popular summer retreat. It gets deep snows in winter but looks great in spring blossom or autumnal blaze. Alasht’s unusual mosque has contemporary twin minarets but its central fluted cone-spire tops a central tower that supposedly started life as an ancient church. Towards the base of the village amid lanes of partly mud-and-timber homes (some with timber-shingled roofs held down by rocks) is the Khaneh Shah, a slightly grander house in which Reza Shah Pahlavi was born (1877). Several of the photogenic, moustachioed old men who ride donkeys around the village claim family links with the ex-shah.
Right beside the mosque, the comfortable new Mosaferkhaneh Darreh ( 533 2022; tw/apt IR250,000/500,000) has great if partly wire-cut views across the valley. The upper apartment includes a spacious sitting room and balcony with barbeque.
Alasht is 35km off the Qa’emshahr–Tehran road, starting 4km south of Pol-e-Sefid, from which taxis want IR60,000/90,000 one way/return. The nicest way to reach Pol-e Sefid from Sari is on the 7.30am local train (IR2000, 1½ hours). Pay onboard.
Behshahr
0152 / pop 78,000
Marginally interesting Behshahr was once an R&R getaway for Safavid Shah Abbas I, who built the town’s perky little Safiabad Palace (Kakh-e Safi Abad; closed to public) and central Bagh-e-Shahr (Shah’s Garden; dawn-6pm). All that remains of his Abbasabad pavilion is an arched brick platform in a landscaped lake amid pretty wooded hills (8km east, then 3km inland). In otherwise unprepossessing Rostam Kola village (7km west), you could seek out the well-preserved Farahi Hosseinieh, a private traditional Mazandarani homestead.
Savaris to Sari (IR6000) and Gorgan (IR10,000) leave from opposite ends of Behshahr town. With your own transport, avoid the thundering main road east of Galugah by using the quietly attractive ‘old-road’. For information on Kordkuy, Click here.
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GORGAN
0171 / pop 253,000
This appealing city has a colourful, ethnically mixed population and an attractive location where the green Alborz Mountains stoop to meet the northeastern steppe. Gorgan was the birthplace of ‘eunuch-king’ Aga Mohammad who founded the expansionist Qajar dynasty (1779–1925). Architectural heritage is relatively limited but Gorgan makes a fine base for visiting the Turkmen steppes, Golestan’s forested mountains or the remote Mil-e Radkan tower Click here.
Orientation
From the bazaar area around Shahrdari (Vahdat) Sq, vibrant Valiasr St leads several kilometres southeast towards Nahar Khoran, an appealingly semi rural scattering of woodland restaurants and hotels.