Day 7 - 16th November 2018
For twenty years there had been a drought in this part, in the province of Far. This area is an agricultural area and they grew wheat, corn, tomato, sugar beet and even rice. It did rain annually but NEVER like today for the past twenty years. Thus Sohelia, our guide, said that the farmers were overjoyed with this weather.
The VIDEO
The Tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae.
By this time it was raining heavily and we alighted the coach just so we could make a dash to the Tomb of Cyrus the Great before making our way to Necropolis and Persepolis.
This is a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site. Here laid the tomb of Cyrus who was the first king to unite and form the Achaemenid Empire in 550 BC.
The tomb was not huge, but historically significant. When Alexander the Great sacked Persepolis in 330BC.
From Wikipedia:
'The most important monument in Pasargadae is the tomb of Cyrus the Great. It has six broad steps leading to the sepulchre, the chamber of which measures 3.17 m long by 2.11 m wide by 2.11 m high and has a low and narrow entrance. Though there is no firm evidence identifying the tomb as that of Cyrus, Greek historians tell that Alexander believed it was. When Alexander looted and destroyed Persepolis, he paid a visit to the tomb of Cyrus. Arrian, writing in the second century AD, recorded that Alexander commanded Aristobulus, one of his warriors, to enter the monument. Inside he found a golden bed, a table set with drinking vessels, a gold coffin, some ornaments studded with precious stones and an inscription on the tomb. No trace of any such inscription survives, and there is considerable disagreement to the exact wording of the text. But it was something to this effect:
"O man, whoever thou art, from wheresoever thou cometh, for I know you shall come, I am Cyrus, who founded the empire of the Persians. Grudge me not, therefore, this little earth that covers my body.” '
The Empire of Achaemenid had several capitals. Cyrus the Great, when he first found the empire, he established his capital in Pasargadae, but also kept Ectabana from the previous Medes empire as a capital too. Cyrus also kept Babylon (now around 70km from Baghdad) as his winter capital. It was later, Cambyses II moved the capital westward to Susa. The later King Darius founded the ceremonial capital in Persepolis.
From Amelie.net:
'The Achaemenid Empire, particularly during the reigns of Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great, is probably one of the fragments of Persian history that most Iranians are proud of. It has become an Iranian identity that unites the whole of Iran, regardless of their differences in religious beliefs and backgrounds.'
Although the Achaemenid empire lasted only about 200 years, the way Cyrus the Great ruled made this the first empire that respected the diversity in culture and religion of all his subjects. He had the endearment of all his vassal states and the Achaemenian and Median people were in very strongly bonded friendship, in no small part because Cyrus’ mother was a Median herself.
Necropolis (Naqsh e Rustam)
This site, called The city of dead because of the four tombs of the four great Kings, is known locally as Naqsh-e-Rustam, Rustam in the local language refers to the strong and mighty, which is the mountain into which the four tombs were built, related Sohaela.
The four Achaemenid Kings- Darius I, Darius’s sin Xerxes, his son Artaxerxes I, and his grandson Darius II - all had their tombs here.
The rain was unrelenting as several of us stepped off the coach and made our ways to the entrance of Necropolis. The gloomy weather made handphone photography the easiest and eventually Ah Woo’s Huawei Mate 20 really showed its prowess under such non-contrasty, bad-lighting conditions. Kathy and Shunjie were really the gung-ho ones who went all the way right to the doorstep of the entrance to take their treasured photo of Necropolis.
Persepolis in the rain
The blessing of the rain to the farmers did not necessarily spell the same for photographers en route to the famed Persepolis looking for the perfect shot.
It was still raining heavily as we passed through the entrance, no bags allowed in the premises. I could imagine how grand the sprawling palatial architecture would have been at its height. Now what remained were merely the foundations to the wall and the columns and whatever still left standing.
The dark clouds and wet floor made for the ideal opportunity to just grab the handphone and shoot. Even Adrian was in mobile photography mode.
Of course Ah Woo’s Huawei Mate 20 came in beating all competitors flat right on top at the tomb.
Being here in the centre of the old Persian empire, ceremonial though it was, gave me the similar sense of awe as when we were at the Temple of Karnak in Egypt, in the Colosseum in Rome, in Pompeii, and several more of the magnificent ancient structures I have beheld thus far in my life.
Soheila explained how the 28 vassal countries would send their dignitaries here to present gifts to the Persian King, in the Apodaca (The Audience Hall characterised by the tall columns still remained standing) and after they entered the Gate of Nations, they then took the 111 steps with very low 10cm rise per step to the Alabama. This low rose steps were so designed as to preserve the dignity of the ambassadors. In the bas-relief, each of the dignitaries were held hand in hand by either an Achaemenian soldier or a Median soldier, further emphasizing the degree to which they were welcomed to Persepolis, instead of being coerced to come forth.
“Let’s climb up to the Tomb right on top there. That’s a good vantage point,” said Adrian.
And we all climbed through the rocks and gravels and flowing water up that slope to the ancient tomb. Of course barring some small little stumbles and scraped knees, we all made it up to the tomb.
“Until now we still couldn’t tell if this was the tomb of Xerxes II or Xerxes III,” admitted Soheila. “Look at the relief stop the tomb, you can see the 28 representatives from the 28 countries holding up the tomb using just their fingers and not on their shoulders. This represents them not being oppressed nor suppressed. This is the way Cyrus the great ruled with high tolerance for his subjects.”
Within the ruins of Persepolis, we could still find, those columns that remained standing, the sculptures of Bull-headed winged griffins right on the top of the columns. These creatures were called Shirdal.
Ancient Persians believed the bulls to be the symbol of power of Ahura Mazda the Creator God. Before Zoroastrianism the older religion was Mitraism. In Mitraism, God had two sons- one was the creator Ahura Mazda the good son, and the other was the evil son Ahriman, who was the destroyer.
As Mitraism transited into Zoroastrianism, the followers of the newer faith worshipped Ahura Mazda as the one single God.
“It is not a big area inside the tomb,” continued Soheila. “There is only enough space for two coffins inside the entrance.”
Getting down the slope was also a little tricky. Despite the lack of the highly sought-after bright sunlight for the landscape, I was really glad to have had the chance to visit Persepolis, even if we had to brave the heavy rain and wet track. This ruin of a city was the link in the continuum of the history of civilisation in this piece of land of Near Asia from the time of one of the cradles of mankind, Mesopotamia, to the period of Islamization of Persia during the 7th century, common era.
The period starting from the Achaemenid empire in 550BC to the end of the Sassanian period in 630AD was the pinnacle of Persian civilisation.
“You know, Adrian,” I shared with him as we slowly made our way down. “Visiting Persepolis, even if it was in heavy rain and dull gloomy weather, was very important to my heart. Because being able to visit the centre of the Achaemenid empire, the Caravanserai of Vazarneh, and also Shiraz and later Kerman, gave me the opportunity to finally put in the missing link of the ancient Silk Road. Slowly but my bit my quest for traversing the Ancient Silk Road will be joined up. This trip is very important to me.”
Shah Cheragh Holy Shrine in Shiraz
This was our last stop of attraction for the night. It was Friday evening and prayer sessions were in progress in the shrine. Unfortunately we were not allowed to carry any cameras, bags nor tripods. Thus again, it became a handphone-photography session in practice (yet again!).
After the heavy downpour, the grounds of the premises were wet and puddles of water had formed and we all went crazy exploring various angles and taking reflections of the colourful mosque structures. Imagine how mediocre it would be had there not been the wet floor!
A group of very friendly young Iranian men came up to me and started practicing speaking in English. They wanted to chat me up so that they could practice English and they asked my opinion of Iran and exchanged Instagram ID, and they simply couldn’t get enough of taking group photos with Far Eastern Group Asians like us. In fact Jing Tian had an interesting experience this afternoon while in Persepolis when a teacher with a group of young 8-9 year old students asked her to take a group photo with them, wondering if she was from Korea. The teacher proceeded to ask more details about her subsequently.
Thus, it was very intriguing how the Iranians were genuinely interested in people visiting them as they didn’t have much contact with tourists, at least not at this point in time.
Chinese dinner, anyone?
As Adrian promised, we had Chinese dinner, and a rather authentic one at that, in China Dragon restaurant.
“At least give you all a change of palate after all these days of kebabs and lavash,” explained the good guide.
“Tomorrow we have a long ten hour bus journey. So tonight you all need to rest well. I just checked the weather. It says that tomorrow will be sunny and not rainy like this. Hope finger-crosses things turn out well.”
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