Travelling in Iran - Newspaper Articles
The following are links to newspaper articles that have covered travel in Iran. These articles are from mainstream Western publications, so they will have little about Ziarats.
Below each link is an extract from the relevant article. Click the links below to read the full articles.
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The remaking of Iran: empire of the senses - Telegraph
We had visited the Armenian cathedral before moving on to the bazaar. It is a quite extraordinary transcultural composite in which biblical scenes in a European baroque style are, it seems, just stuck as if in a collage on top of the richly decorated tile work characteristic of 17th-century Isfahan. MacGregor was fascinated by this example of art-history interfusion, delivering an eloquent and impromptu mini-lecture on the spot. -
Axis of adventure: Iran - Telegraph
What I found, on a winter journey that took me from the sweet orange blossom of the south to the frozen waterfalls of the north, was a subtle and improbable place, with a hatful of world-class historical and architectural sites and politely curious people. Though the authorities keep an eye on foreigners at all times - which can feel uncomfortable - I felt completely safe, which is more than I feel on an English high street on a Friday night. -
Cradle of civilisation - Middle East, Travel - The Independent
I'd started my short tour of Iran aboard a new Iran Air Airbus which zipped me south to Shiraz. The ticket for the London-Paris segment of the journey cost £15. When the poet Omar Khayyam wrote, "a loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou", he was probably dreaming about a jug of Shiraz. Sadly, although Shiraz, that dark peppery red, is popular worldwide, you won't find any Shiraz in Shiraz today. Or anywhere else in the strictly teetotal Islamic Republic of Iran. Fortunately I had sampled some Shiraz Shiraz way back on my first visit, in the back of a VW Kombi van at a campsite in Isfahan. -
How the other half lives: views of Iran - Middle East, Travel - The Independent
But there's also good news. Iran has none of that hissing, calling and touching that women endure when travelling in countries such as Turkey or Pakistan. There are no men following you around, unlike the first time I visited Paris. The main drawbacks for women travellers are an itchy scalp and flat hair caused by the headscarf. But since most of this vast country ranges from baking to boiling hot, most, if not all the year round, you generally need something to keep the sun off your head, even in midwinter. -
The art of buying a carpet - The Observer
There are two schools of thought about oriental carpet buying. The first, the one expounded in many guidebooks, holds that casual carpet buyers will inevitably get ripped off and that, given the gaping economic disparity between the West and the carpet-making rest, the damage will be slight - and perhaps even a justified kind of post-colonial revenge. The second sees the exchange between you and the carpet dealer as akin to a barely disguised duel. -
Tony Wheeler reveals the real face of Iran - The Observer
Water features everywhere in Iran, flowing along street edges in the open drains known as jubes, cascading down channels in gardens and parks, sprinkling in fountains and in pools in the open courtyards of traditional old houses. It's also dispensed with remarkable civic generosity. In museums, parks, mosques - even along every length of street - there's usually a public refrigerated water dispenser, an Iranian version of a drinking fountain. In the big cities piped water is safe to drink and a happy consequence of this ready availability of cold drinking water is that Iran is not afflicted with the litter of empty plastic mineral water bottles which plagues so many developing countries.