During my stay after the conference I had visited some places in Iran and also some of my students who are teaching in the universities there. The interesting thing of my stay was that it coincided with the Iranian Navruz, So, it had both a positive and a negative impact on my plan of visits. The positive side was that I could witness the sentiment of celebration and gaity reflecting all over Iran; and the negative side was that because as during this time there happens to be an extensive mobility of the Iranian people all over the country and abroad so not only I had to stay in Iran, which in a way was a blessing in disguise since I could at least visit some of the well known places in Iran, but also had to drop my definite plans of visiting some places owing to the non-availability of accommodation at some cities during those days. One of the major achievement was the trip to the Caspian Sea through the town of Rudehen all along the Mount Damavand. My warm and large-hearted host, the father of my stdent Shirin took me for the trip driving the distance from his home to the Caspian Sea. I could see the beautiful countryside, the gorgeous snow-capped mountain chain extending up to the Caspian Sea or Daryā-i Xazar, the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth or a full-fledged sea. As a writer and photographer I could experience why Damavand had fired the imagination in many iranian myths and literature including the great 10th century Persian poet Firdowsi who is credited with the Persian magnum opus Shahnameh. It is very interesting that Ferdausi mentions about the mountain in India (possibly the Himalayas) at one point when he refers to the Mount Damavand. The terrain is not as mountainous as the Himalayan terrain in India but .me at different places. There were several hot springs or other small bodies of water on the way and all the places the mountain was not equally capped with snow as retained the snow that had fallen a week before. We drank and took the cool spring water at Chashma-e- Alla and sipped tea from the thermos flask or ate food buying big nans from a tandour on route of out our trip. Here are some cool images (not a selection)!
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:05:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015