In search of Persia: Esfahan and the central desert

Journal entry Sunday 29 - 31 October
Citt and I found our luxury unit at the hotel Hash Behest, Esfahan to be just too comfortable. We stayed for 3 days making good use of the time to wash our clothes, book air fares and eat some yummy food.

Sharastan Bridge with obvious places for coffee and Chaikanna houses now banned in Iran,
This one is in the river bed. I do not think it is too permanent.

Esfahan has a large Christian population - Armenian Lutheran who came here for work during construction of the many mosques and public buildings. They are skilled workers, stonemasons, artisans and ceramic workers and they stayed. The area on the South of the river is the Armenian section. One afternoon we set out to walk to this section, on the way visiting and crossing the Sharastan Bridge, one of the many bridges over the  Zayandeh River. It was dry when we were there. (A sad indictment of the ruling regime. It is said they have dammed the river to feed orchards owned by the members of the ruling junta).

The walkway on the bridge or promenade empty of musicians and poets.
Sadly the Chaicannas have closed by decree.

The walk was long and interesting passing through the Bond Street and Park Lane of  Esfahan. The Christian Chuches were closed however after a meal in a good Armenian restaurant Citt went shopping. Now Citt does not often go shopping but when she does it is a sight to see. The poor shop assistant that gets her attention is put through the hoops. In short she purchased a beautiful original silk scarf for a song. "I think they were glad to get her out of the shop".

Journal entry Sunday 31 October
Bus from Esfahan to Kerman.
I should have been more aware on the bus from Hermansham to Esfahan  to the hidden peril of the guy in the front seat, hacking and coughing, broacasting his germs.  I was to get a flu making me pay big time.

The journey from Esfahan to Kerman is across barren desert country.  The road is divided highway with a speed limit enforced, 110kph.

Huge ceramic factories easily 2 hectares each dot the plains.  Road trains carry loads of tiles heading to Italy, Germany, Russia and who knows, maybe Australia.
The bus is express 9 hours with only one pee stop. Of course the police stops are mandatory. It is not the road to travel if you have drunk too much water.

On arrival in Kerman we had the usual argument with the taxis. Taxi drivers throughout the world are always trying to charge double or triple. It is 'look out wood duck'. 

Truck heading for Pakistan/Iran border. Great sign writing.

So here we were in a nice comfortable hotel in Kerman.  

We set about hiring a guide and a car. 

Our goal

1. Travel to and sleep in the desert at the Koluts (Sand Castle), (5000 star hotel) 220 kilometres out on the desert road to Afghanistan 
2. Visit the ancient oasis’s  
3. Explore  the “Ganuts” underground water channels dug over 2000 years ago to supply water to oasis and caravanserai’s that serviced and sheltered the caravans travelling on the Silk Road from India and Central Asia
4. Visit the Bagh-E Shazde (Shahs Garden) at Mahan, a small town south of Kerman. It was reputed to be famous for opium production prior to the Revolution.
5. Travel to the ancient city of Bam. Pivotal point of the Silk Road with one of largest Arg structures (castle/fort made of sand and mud) in the world. That was until  5.30am December 23, 2003. When the whole city was devasted by an earthquake, 6.8 on the richter scale directly under the city. Today it is reputed to be the largest adobe construction site on earth listed by UNESCO.
6. We did not want to go further than Bam as it is too close to the Pakistan border for our safety. Kidnapping is common south of Bam in the border areas.
7. We will then ride a bus and travel to Bander Abbas situated on the Persian Gulf to visit the Bander people.

Goals set now find a guide.

Me at the Kaluts

Next day our car  (yellow taxi all loaded) just fitted us in.

Citt with our taxi to the Kaluts

Our guide supplied the gear. Two sleeping bags and ground sheet. He had his trusty cooking pot along, Plus some other stuff to make tea and store things. Off we go.

Camping Iran style (Kaluts)

The Kaluts (Sand Castles)

The Kaluts and a desert Caravanserai.

The Kaluts live up to their reputation. They are like Monument Valley in the US, only carved out of sand. We arrived on dusk. Slept most of way as I was a sick puppy.

The sand kept getting up my nose

Citt at the Kaluts

The road takes us through  barren mountains with pockets of fertile lands in the valleys. Emerging into the desert is awesome with flat land as far as the eye can see. There are oasis on this desert and I was intrigued how the water came to these areas. 

Oasis
Date palms and vegetable patches grew fed by streams The stream turned out to be an engineering feat called a Ganut. Tunnels dug by engineers starting 2000 years ago and still active today. 

Daily Chores on the Ganut

The ancient citadel in the oasis.

Our night at the Kaluts was sleeping out in bags.  The wind was strong and we buried our heads in the bags. The morning dawned clear and bright. Citt and I took photos and enjoyed the moment. On the way out of the desert we visited an oasis and investigated the Ganut feeding the village.

The Ganuts. First find a reliable water source in the mountains (50kms away) then dig the tunnels at an average depth of 8 metres. A manhole is dug approx every 10 metres. The water is gravity fed.
The Ganut diggers are still active today.
We found the same technology in Tulafan in the area near Urumqui in the northern Gobi desert China.

Our journey to Hamay we visited the Princes garden and the old citadel at Ronay

The Shahs gardens

The Shahs garden at night made even more spectacular as it is in the desert.

 before heading finally to Bam into which, to our disappointment, we arrived in the dark. Bam was completely destroyed by an earthquake in the last few years it has risen from the ashes with new steel framed modern buildings. Unesco is supervising the rebuild of the old Citadel. 


We saw little of the place and it seemed pointless to drive all the way down here and only see an outline.
As a bonus our guide took us to meet a friend of his who lost all in the quake. He told us of the nightmare and the heartache the quake had created. He lost 18 family members that morning. Those that survived the quake, but were trapped in the debris, froze to death. 

The town is suffering as the overland route used to go through here from India. The Afgahn war has stopped the flow and the tourists (local)do not come to view the magnificent Citadel which we were told was perfect and the largest in Iran.

But the tourists will return once the Citadel is completed.

It was late as we headed back toward Kerman stopping for dinner at the Shahs Place and then a onto a hotel.

The Shahs palace

The next morning we traveled back to Kerman and jumped on a bus and headed straight for Bander Abbas on the Persian Gulf. (9 hours)

Dhows on the Persian Gulf

Next a fishy story and a flight to Shiraz