A round-number UN Country Milestone today for me !!!
Welcome to Iran, my 130th Visit and 125th Run UN Country out of a total of 193. As usual, after the last lot of photos below is a brief summary of the country of Iran and ten interesting facts that set this country apart.
STOP PRESS:
The country of Azerbaijan was on the original itinerary when I booked this trip but we were unable to visit after Armenia and before Iran because there is an ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and all land borders closed before this trip even started. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians until 2023, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaijanis until their expulsion during the 1990s. The Nagorno-Karabakh region was entirely claimed by and partially controlled by the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, but was recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan gradually re-established control over Nagorno-Karabakh region and the seven surrounding districts. The conflict escalated into a full-scale war in the early 1990s following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The war was won by Armenia but a second war in 2018 returned control to Azerbaijan. In 2023 there was an escalation which has now resulted in closed land borders. I plan to fly to Baku (permitted), the Capital of Azerbaijan at some point in the future.
BACK TO ARMENIA NEAR THE BORDER TO IRAN:
Despite a damp overnight low of 3C at 1100m, I slept surprisingly well. You know it is cold when you cannot feel your fingers after packing up your bag and tent. Took me ages to defrost them with two cups of hot tea. I was in two minds about Iran. On the one-hand it will likely be one of the most cultural places of my trip but on the other hand, I am not looking forward to 18 continuous nights of NO WINE !!! At least I can enjoy my cheese and olives but I will need to find a substitute drink for my wine that won’t get me arrested !!!
The border was not far and another super-scenic drive. All of suddenly the greenery stopped and these sharp craggy ridges formed leading to a major flowing river that separates the two countries. Opposite stood Iran bathes in yellow-brown desert – just like I imagined it. Our expectations were set for hours and hours of border crossing but much to pour surprise we went through both sides in a little under 3.5hrs which is a record for Iran. This was because of two things. The first is that the truck was not stripped down for checking which is what causes the many hours. The second is because our local guide HANIEH (her nickname is “honey”) vouched for us with the officials which sped up the paperwork greatly. Hanieh would be with us the entire 18 days in Iran – border-to-border. This is mandatory since UK and USA passport holders cannot travel or even walk the streets alone in Iran. A guide also helps with language, explanations of culture and local logistics. A huge wave of relief came over me since I could go for a run because what are the chances that Hanieh would run with me if I was British or American !!!
The 2.5hrs, 136km drive from the border at Agarak-Nordooz to the city of Tabriz was also super-spectacular. A vast desert landscape with villages surrounded by green (fruit trees and veggie fields) thanks to the major river flowing down from snow-capped mountains in the distance. Tabriz (Pop 1,678,000) and the two major cities before it are very clean, well-kept and nicely decorated – boulevards are lined with flags and flowers and everything seems orderly. The smaller villages all had rectangular shaped houses of brick with tin roofs and a garden – all looked so symmetrical from a distance. Tabriz is not a tourist town in that it lacks any cultural attractions or important Mosques but it does have a drawcard – the Grand Bazaar of Tabriz – the largest fully covered Bazaar in the Muslim World !!! I was in a dilemma. We dropped our gear at the hotel at 2pm and it took me to 3pm to get internet working so I could post Armenia that night. Internet was up and down and mostly weak so it would take ages to post. Did I have enough time for my first run in Iran followed by a tour of town (Bazaar alone would take ages) and then come back and post. I had a look at my road options and the map was spaghetti – I would easily get lost. The traffic was also horrendous with pedestrians just weaving their way through moving cars. I decided to abort the run and focus on touring town and finding a supermarket. Off I went at 330pm. Another world. Reminded me a lot of Muslim Africa, especially Morocco – ordered chaos. People everywhere. Smaller shops everywhere selling everything. Just how do they make money ? The local RIAL currency has crashed, especially because of sanctions. One Australian Dollar gets you 27,000 Rial from a bank or 47,000 Rial from the black market. We all opted for the second – by pooling together all our USD we got almost double the bank rate. USD cash is King !!! The ATMs only work with local cards and the EFTPOS machines in large stores only work with local cards – this is because of sanctions – foreign cards are not allowed to be processed. You do not want to be left with any Rial so most of us only exchanged $100USD so we could see our burn rate.
I visited the following sites in Tabriz: Shohada Park & Monument, The Gran Bazaar of Tabriz (largest covered bazaar globally), Boyuk Tarbiyat Pedestrian Walkway, Sa'at Square, Tabriz Municipality (Town Hall). The bazaar was being renovated in the same style as the original. Because it is covered, there are open outdoor rectangles for store owners to see the sun above a hot cup of tea. The Persian Carpet section was my favourite as you will see in the photos below. The Boyuk Tarbiyat Pedestrian Walkway was also great since it is full of colourful and more up-market shopfronts and masses of people of all ages. Most women wear the black hijab but many are in colourful western clothes with head scarfs. Women MUST cover their heads and men MUST NOT wear shorts. Many people approached me with “welcome” and some even offered directions as I looked down at my phone while I walked. It is early days yet but Iran appears to be well organised and advanced – this city being described by Hanieh as an ”outskirt” or “remote” place – given this cannot wait to see Tehran (Capital & No 1) and Isfahan (No 2). Got back at 530pm with dinner via taxis leaving at 7pm. By the time I showered and got Armenia together for posting it was 7pm so I decided to stay and post and buy myself some food from the small shop next door. In the end I had to get the manager to hot spot me to post Armenia since the hotel wi-fi was too weak. My GlobaleSim was also on and off. I had service when we arrived but no service now – I was now leaning towards a physical Sim as an Iranian friend of Tony Merlo had advised. Even managed to get a movie in as I woofed down my canned delights of eggplant, beans, mushrooms, carrots, peas and corn as tonight was Easter Saturday…
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What a contrast the next morning over breakfast in the hotel. It was Easter Sunday Morning and the photos of lamb on the spit, tsourekia (Greek Easter sweet bread) and red eggs greeted my humble omelette and instant coffee !!! I was so homesick that I called my brother Nick to get the story of Greek Easter this year. I have only missed 3 other Greek Easters in Australia due to my travels.
Today was 8-12hrs of driving 520km which is the only reason I ate something. The first two hours out of Tabriz revealed vast open plains with snow-covered mountains on the horizon. Tabriz is at 1,455m elevation but this plain was hovering around 1,800m. There is so much space here to grow stuff but not many rivers to do it. Much of it was green but that is due to recent more-than-expected rainfall according to Hanieh. At our first petrol/pee break I learnt a fascinating fact. Due to the oil-petroleum sanctions in Iran, petrol at stations is rationed. Every car owner receives a card for 90 litres of petrol each day. Our truck has a 1000 litre tank and we have no cards !!! So, we had to buy 3 cards at a premium from local drivers coming into refuel. This would mean more fuel stops !!!
The next two hours pointed us to the city of Zanjan across some incredibly unique landscape of rolling sandstone hills, weathered both smooth and jagged with multiple colours due to the different minerals trapped in the sand over time. Not much farming our here – mainly arid land. At one stage we passed rice fields but tiny in size compared to most. The farmland eventually returned before our next break – mainly wheat. Zanjan itself looked new – lots of new apartments and we just happened to stop at a newly finished mall complete with a HYPER supermarket which had hot food to go – my dinner was assured – rice spices and large chunks of lean stewed beef – this was to be my Paschal (Easter) Feast !!!
Off again for another 2hrs from 2pm. I was up to date on the blog so I put on the TOP GUN. This time all agricultural with lots of machinery, sheds and towns to service these. The ground was rolling flat and still around 1700m elevation. At 4pm we rolled into another petrol station for more 90L lots of fuel and to inspect our rear absorbers since the rear passengers (including myself) and been bobbing up and down for most of the last segment. Turns out that the passenger side absorber was leaking air – the shocks are pistons that absorb shocks via compressed air. Adrian (driver) added more air to one side to reduce the bouncing and we set off.
I put on TOP GUN MAVERICK for the next segment that took us from the flat fields up higher to 2000m to drive through greener more rolling hills and a narrow road with lots of bumps. We then descended into a wide gorge-like valley with a huge man-made reservoir at the bottom and sharp sandstone ridges on either side. Our last stop around 530pm involved me getting olives and cheese together for the end of Top Gun and our late post sunset arrival which couldn’t have come soon enough at 830pm. We stayed in a huge apartment style room in what looked like a huge house. I was starving so I unloaded as quickly as possible, skipped the shower and settled down to the cooked food from the supermarket and another movie. 100% apple juice replaced my normal fermented grape juice…
A luxury sleep-in to 830am and off at 10am to complete my first 10km run of Iran. Conditions perfect. Location perfect. My 125th UN Country Run completed in fast time. I got the OK from our local guide Hanieh to run in leggings (long pants tights) and a T-Shirt. During my run I realized that the town we had overnighted in was not Masuleh in the mountains at 1100m but Maklava some 23km in the valley below at 400m and it was full of flooded rice paddies ready for seeding. I even ran past a rice mill which means this whole valley must be devoted to rice – all this recognition from my 2yrs SAP Project in Leeton – Australia’s rice-growing capital back in the late 1990s. As I ran, I got a few stares and car honks but, on the whole, went well. The rest of the group left 9am to visit the famous Qaleh Rudkhan Castle near the village of Masouleh (23km from our hotel). After my run I attempted to book a taxi to take me to Masouleh and then I would hike 365m uphill over 2.2km to the Castle and ride back with the group but it turned out they were on their way back down to their mini-van and I would miss them. Could not find a taxi driver to take me there and wait the 2hrs it would take me to trek up and down so I let it be. Such is travel. Such is running – for me it is like food or sleep – I would not go another day without running after 3 days…
I spent the rest of the day calling relatives in Australia, Greece and the USA to wish them “Christ is Risen” – the greeting and Blessing for Orthodox Easter. Posted the rest of Armenia and planned my Tehran solo-walk of attractions. Relaxing. Much to my surprise the Castle group returned at 430pm and told me they had left the Castle car park at 3pm, I was upset since I could have ridden back with them. No worries. I was relaxed and relieved that I had my Iran run under my belt. It was that afternoon when I rang my best friend that he told me that Pope Francis has died just 3hrs ago. In his honour I decided to watch the movie THE TWO POPES over a nice local chicken rice veggie puree dish with early sleep since tomorrow was Tehran day…
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IRAN IN A NUTSHELL
Iran, also known as Persia, is the sixth-largest country entirely in Asia and one of the world's most mountainous countries. One of the “cradles of civilisation” alongside Iraq and Syria, Iran has been inhabited since the Lower Palaeolithic Period (3 million to 300,000 years ago). A large part of Iran was first unified as a political entity by the Medes under Cyaxares in the seventh century BC, and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire, one of the largest in ancient history. Alexander the Great conquered the empire in the fourth century BC. An Iranian rebellion established the Parthian Empire in the third century BC and liberated the country, which was succeeded by the Sasanian Empire in the third century AD. Ancient Iran saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, religion and central government. The Sasanian era is considered a golden age in the history of Iranian civilisation. Up until this time Iran was not Muslim. In fact, it was Christian from the 3rd to 7thCentury AD thanks largely to missionaries of Apostle St Paul based in Damascus Syria. Muslims conquered the region in the seventh century AD, leading to Iran's Islamisation. The literature, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, astronomy and art which had blossomed during the Sasanian era were renewed during the Islamic Golden Age and Persian Renaissance, when a series of Iranian Muslim dynasties ended Arab rule, revived the Persian language and ruled the country until the Seljuk and Mongol conquests of the 11th to 14th centuries. In the 16th century, the native Safavids re-established a unified Iranian state with Twelver Shi'ism as the official religion. During the Afsharid Empire in the 18th century, Iran was a leading world power, but this was no longer the case after the Qajars took power in the 1790s. The early 20th century saw the Persian Constitutional Revolution and the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty by Reza Shah the Great, who ousted the last Qajar shah in 1925. Attempts by Mohammad Mosaddegh to nationalise the oil industry led to an Anglo-American coup in 1953. After the Iranian Revolution, the monarchy was overthrown in 1979 and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established by Ruhollah Khomeini, who became the country's first Supreme Leader. In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, sparking the eight-year-long Iran–Iraq War, which ended in stalemate.
Iran is officially governed as a unitary Islamic republic with a presidential system, with ultimate authority vested in a Supreme Leader. The government is authoritarian and has attracted widespread criticism for its significant violations of human rights and civil liberties. Iran is a major regional power, due to its large reserves of fossil fuels, including the world's second largest natural gas supply, third largest proven oil reserves, its geopolitically significant location, military capabilities, cultural hegemony, regional influence, and role as the world's focal point of Shia Islam. The Iranian economy is the world's 23rd-largest by GDP per person. Iran is home to 28 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the 10th highest in the world, and ranks 5th in Intangible Cultural Heritage, or human treasures.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT IRAN:
1. A thumbs up in Iran is the same as a middle finger (“up yours”) in the West.
2. Has 28 UNESCO Sites: No 10 globally (Italy is No 1 with 60 Sites).
3. The word “Assassin” comes from Iran: soldiers who targeted specific enemy individuals rather than go to war.
4. Alcohol has been illegal since 1979.
5. No 4 in Oil Reserves globally (16.8% of total supply).
6. Birthplace of the Persian Empire (550BC to 331BC) reaching India, Egypt, Bulgaria, Romania & Ukraine.
7. Home to the world’s hottest desert temperature recorded: The Lut Desert with 70.7C in 2005.
8. No 12 globally for plastic surgery with the most “nose jobs” per capita in the world.
9. Inventors of Polo (Horses) in 600BC.
10. Largest producer of Saffron globally.
IRAN SUMMARY
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