Iran - Andrew Burke [290]
Towhid Foroozanfar ( 893 7025, 0915 313 2960; towhidfroozan@yahoo.com) A well-informed, engaging driver-guide who has been recommended by readers.
Vali Ansari Astaneh ( 851 6980, 0915 100 1324; vali32@imamreza.net) Offers very inexpensive low-tech walking and public-transport based city tours, village visits, mountain walks and a budget homestay.
VISA EXTENSIONS
Edareh-ye Gozarnameh (Map; 218 3907; 45 Metri-ye Reza St, Piruzi Blvd; 8am-1pm Sat-Wed, 8am-10.30am Thu) Behind fortified green fencing, this inconveniently located place would look like a prison except that the mad crush of inmates (mostly Central Asians) are all trying to get in. Not the best place to apply. For an additional US$25 service charge, Adibian Travel can handle the processing for you.
Sights
HARAM-E RAZAVI
Imam Reza’s Holy Shrine is enveloped in a series of sacred precincts collectively known as the Haram-e Razavi (Map; 24hr), or Haram for short. This magical city-within-a-city sprouts dazzling clusters of domes and minarets in blue and pure gold behind vast fountain-cooled courtyards and magnificent arched arcades. It’s one of the marvels of the Islamic world whose moods and glories should be fully savoured more than once at varying times of day. Compare the orderly overload of dusk prayer-time to the fairy-tale calm of a floodlight nocturnal wander.
Information
No bags or cameras are allowed within the complex, though curiously snapping photos with mobile phones is accepted. There are left-luggage offices near most entrances. Men and women enter through different carpet-draped portals and are politely frisked. Women must wear a chador: it’s sometimes possible to borrow one from your hotel. Dress for either sex should be conservative and clean.
Non-Muslims are allowed in most of the Haram’s outer courtyards. They are NOT allowed inside the complex’s two holiest buildings, the Holy Shrine and the Gohar Shad Mosque. Technically, non-Muslims are also excluded from the magnificent Enqelab and Azadi courtyards, but you can peep in through relevant gateways. At quieter times, those who act suitably (demure, respectful and soaking up the spiritual rather than the aesthetic) are rarely challenged and might wander through ‘by mistake’. However, be particularly careful not to upset Muslim sensibilities: remember, it’s a privilege for non-Muslims to be allowed to visit the Haram complex at all.
Friendly, multilingual staff at the Foreign Pilgrims Assistance Office ( 221 3474; intlrela@mail.dci.co.ir; 7am-6pm) can show you a 20-minute video about the shrine and shower you with books on all things Shiite. However, once you’ve visited this office there’s no escape from the free, friendly but over-protective guide/minder they assign you.
Outer Courtyards
A good starting point for nonpilgrim visits is Falakeh Ab from which several of the domes and minarets are tantalisingly visible in the middle distance. Enter through the vast, part-constructed Razavi Grand Courtyard, which should become grander once the blue, white and gold tiling has been affixed to the courtyard’s façades and concrete minarets. Curving east you’ll pass the Haram’s museums after the unfinished Imam Khomeini Courtyard site. Beyond, look northwest across the gorgeous Azadi Courtyard to glimpse the exterior of the Holy Shrine building.
Notice the Naqqareh Khaneh, a blue-tiled bandstand platform perched above a clock tower gateway. Twice daily (before dawn and dusk) a mesmerising 10-minute fanfare is performed here by drummers and a heptet of gentlemen-hornblowers in faintly comical Salvation Army–style peaked-caps.
Non-Muslims aren’t supposed to transit the spectacular Enqelab Courtyard with its two gold minarets and fabulous