Today I went to Persepolis, a site whose name also refers to the 125sq km city which once was but is now not. The palace of Persepolis which I explored, once stood tall and proud and was built to showcase the success of the Achaemenid Empire. All was going well until some bloke named Alexander the Great came and burnt the place down for kicks. Persepolis apparently was covered under sand and dust for bloody ages, only discovered again in 1930. That's kinda like finding a $50note in your old jacket pocket. I'm not too big on history nor do I know much, but I sat on top of the hill and just was in awe at how they built this thing back in thousands-of-years-ago (10BC and 553BC makes no difference to me, they're both beyond the grasp of the human mind and only serve for record purposes). These pillars holding the roofs were huge, with beautiful carving and masonry craft. I don't know how they lifted these things up without a nice crane....
Apparently the steps were built to allow for men in robes to ascend. So they made them half as high and twice as long as normal steps you encounter. So for men not-in-robes its pretty annoying as you try one step at a time and you look like penguin so you do two steps at a time and you look like a flamingo. Then they covered the stairs with timber to preserve them but they don't mark the edge of each step with anything. So when you walk down you can't really see where the edge is and all the lines plays this illusion on your eyes and you start to feel faint, nauseous, and hospitalisation is likely.
This is what it looks like going down the steps. OH&S NIGHTMARE
Entry to Persepolis was 15 000 tomens ($5US). In the guidebook it says it is well worth visiting Naqsh-e Rostam as well because it's close by, and it only costs 30c. Well guidebook you have failed to retrospectively update yourself for the new dual-pricing, because that monument is also now 15 000t. It's definitely not worth it because there is literally only 1 thing to see which is a rock-wall feature. At a cost of $5 to see a 10second site, that works out to be $1800/hour which is up there with the most expensive of experiences. Ahem. Persepolis works out to be about $2.50/hour (takes 2 hours) so that is definitely some value in that. What I'm an orphan ok!!!
This is what you get for $5. Do you know how much sugarcane juice you can get in India for $5???!?!
Went homebound after that. I remember in the car on the way back how beautiful Iranian highways are. They are perfectly paved and very well maintained. There are also point-to-point speed cameras as well as mobile cameras. Oh and there are fake police cars (emptied out car shells painted white and blue with sirens) just to keep you on edge. Yep, in Iran, they enforce the speed limit just as they do in Sydney, Melbourne, or other major developed cities. Trucks also have to stop every 100kms and show police their speed logs as well. Interesting!
Tomorrow I head north-east for Yazd by bus.
Goodbye!
Ps pics are low quality because my net is crap.
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