Day forty eight - 18 September 2009; Perpolis

Dave and Meg had talked about going to the protests early in the morning before we leave Esfahan. Personally I thought it was a terrible idea to be westerners at the protest, whether it turned out to be an anti-western rally or an anti-government protest. Either way, some people there wouldn’t like it. In the end they don’t go, but probably just because they are too tired.

We drive onto Persepolis, but with the protests all over the country there are many roadblocks which, at one point cause us to do a U-turn.

a view on the road

Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BC), is a mass of ruins laid out on a flat part of ground at the lower part, and then some temples mounted on the hills overlooking. The short climb to the temples provides a good view over the ancient city, but the ruins are not generally as well preserved as Ephesus in Turkey. They are also more randomly spread out, so you don’t get such a strong feel of what it was like in its heyday. This may be partially due to the fact that initially wooden columns were used when building the city.

view from the climb up to the temples

one of the temples

We are a little embarrassed to find graffiti, some from British archaeologists, on some of the relics.

Tonight is another bush camp, this time in the forest on the road to Persepolis.