Things to see and do West & Northwest

This sassanide site of the fourth century presents one of the most beautiful ensembles of Western Iran's sculpted bas-reliefs and caves. Note the solemn investiture scenes to the frozen, almost hierarchical characters who will later influence Byzantine art. Designed to exalt the sovereign's majesty and assert the legitimacy of his power, they also evoke royal hunts. Sculpted from the rock, we discovered on the first of them Khosroès II (590-628), receiving the diadem of the hands of the zoroastrian mage and the goddess Anahita. Influenced by Roman art, farohar (adults) dominate the ensemble dominated by Ahura Mazda. This is probably one of the most beautiful testimonies of Sassanide Persian sculpture. The second bas-relief depicts Aurur II sovereign sovereigns (310-379) and his son Shapur III (383-388), supplemented by inscriptions in parthe and pahlavi (Persian medium). See also the last bas-relief retracing Shapur II's victory over the Roman emperor Julien the apostat, and his coronation by Mithra to the left, all under the auspices of Ahura Mazda. At the end of the visit you can visit one of the nearby tea houses.

The tomb of the Jewish community of Iran, which consists of 25 000 members, the tomb of Queen Esther, wife of King Achaemenid Xerxes I (485-465 BC), is one of the most interesting sites in Hamdan. The Jews settled in the Persian Empire after the conquest of Babylon by King Achaemenid Cyrus the Great, in 539 BC, the latter made the thousands of Jews who were detained Captive by Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, and encouraged them to return to Judah to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Persia appears in the Bible as a liberating nation.

" Then King Darius gave the order to conduct research at the treasury archives, deposited there in Babylon; and, in the fortress of Ecbatane in the province of Mediates, we found a scroll […] In addition, the objects of the Maison de Dieu, gold and silver, which Nebuchadnezzar had removed from the Temple of Jerusalem. '——— Extract from the Old Testament

In 475 BC, Haman, a high-ranking military, tried to annihilate all the Jews of the Persian Empire to seize their property. Queen Esther's intervention with King Xerxes will be decisive. Assisted by his uncle Mardochée, she obtained royal protection and the right for Jews in exile to settle freely within the Empire.

" Esther was then brought to King Xerxes, at his royal palace, the tenth month, that is, in the month of Téveth, the seventh year of reign. And the king fell in love with Esther more than all women, and she earned her benevolence and her favor more than all girls. He then put the regal diadem on his head and he made it queen in place of Vasti. '——— Extract from the Old Testament

The mausoleum, supposed to host the burials of Esther and his uncle Mardochée, is more likely to host the tomb of a later Jewish queen, Shushan, who would have persuaded her husband Yazdgerd I (a th century king king) to accept the establishment of a Jewish colony in Hamdan.

An unavoidable visit to Tabriz for one of the most beautiful museums in Iran, deployed on 3,000 m ² and hosting 4,500 archeological finds of the region. On the ground floor, see the potteries and sculptures of the Ve in the millennium before our era as well as the always impressive skeletons from excavations undertaken in Hasanlu and in different tepe (old fortresses or small towns built on hills) of the region. Note also the beautiful bronzes of the Acheside era and the beautiful silver jewels of the sassanide period. On the upstairs, two sections devoted to numismatic and Islamic times respectively. See in the first, apart from currencies, the beautiful collection of translated maps translated into English and highly instructive. The section dedicated to Islamic art includes beautiful food ceramics covering the period of the nineteenth century in the eighteenth century. Dwell on the collection of sabers, daggers and the original sword of Shah Ismaïl, which will impose chiism as state religion in the sixteenth century.

In the basement, you can admire a splendid collection of monumental sculptures due to Hasad Hosseini, native artist of Tabriz, whose name you may know if you are a fan of the Info's Guignols: he actually worked on the creation of sixty puppets of the cult program of Canal Plus. Works displayed at the Museum of Azerbaijan are much closer to the very black universe of the artist, who works on the human condition and the report of man to what surrounds him, whether politics, nature or wars.

Don't forget to finish visiting the small courtyard, where there are very beautiful carved stalls from various excavations.

The remains of the imposing citadel (or Arg) in decrepitude, built in the early days of the Mongolian occupation, at the beginning of the XIV century, occupy the location of an ancient mosque disappeared five centuries earlier. The heavy bastion that stands at more than 40 m high, reinforced by two powerful cylindrical towers and pierced with two high doors, retains a certain look. The thickness of the walls (10 m) and the quality of the equipment testify to the mastery of the military art of Mongols in these exposed border cities. A few years ago, it was possible to climb the top of the remains to enjoy the street, but at the moment the citadel was taken in the restoration yard of the nearby Imam Khomeiny mosque. It was even thought of a time to shave, but the population mobilized to save the remains of the city's great past.

" Ya Allah, there Allah, there Allah! " Like the song of a song, this little sentence pronounced with a tonic accent justifies in the aisles of the bazaar. Used by porters to warn of their arrival, it adds to the prevailing noise in this huge market. A real city in the city, it offers all the goods and services that can be imagined; barber, trader of appliances, beauty products and houses unusual scenes. Here, a kitchen clerk peeling onions, here a thommessen repriser one of his pieces. A few figures will measure the country's greatest bazaar, which is classified as a UNESCO heritage by UNESCO. The complex covers a network of 36 km of narrow streets, a veritable labyrinth in the heart of the city and covers 75 hectares with no fewer than 5 555 shops. If the exact dates of its creation remain uncertain, most of the current structure date of the Essentiel period (1750-1779).

In the left aisle you will find most carpet merchants. Tabriz is obviously one of the best steps for this type of purchase. There are mainly nomadic carpets, but carpets closer to Isfahan or Nain styles are also very numerous. To discover them and to negotiate them in the goutant of the cool secret is pure happiness!

One of the most pleasant places to shop is certainly the caravanserai.

The hemmed site in the mountain is one of the favourite walks of the inhabitants during the Islamic weekend. At the time, the royal road, linking Suse to Ecbatane, was borrowing this mountain corridor. It is, of course, that two of his greatest kings, Darius I and Xerxes I, made texts to the glory of Ahura Mazda and their power. Dug in the rock, inscriptions are written in old Persian, New Élamite and Babylonian, always from left to right. 2 500 years ago, women and men read what you're looking at as a indecipherable alphabet… Nearby, a waterfall always attracts crowds. You can also relax in the shade of eucalyptus and poplar trees. A small milk and fishing shisha or a picnic on the spot, like Iranian families, will certainly make the case.