Alex Shams Profile picture
Sep 6, 2019 35 tweets 22 min read Read on X
Iran is a land of beauty and contrasts. I'd love to share some of that with you!

Today we're going to explore northwestern Iran, traveling into the forests of Gilan and over into Iranian Azerbaijani cities of Ardebil and Tabriz.

THREAD:
The road north from Tehran leads first into the subtropical Hyrcanian forests of Gilan, along the Caspian Sea coast.

This region is full of small villages surrounded by rice paddies or corn.
Bandar Anzali, our first stop, is actually located in the middle of a lagoon!

Anzali is Iran's main port on the Caspian Sea, and it boomed during World War II.
Anzali has some great mid-century architecture left over from its wartime boom, as well as a lot of cute more humble homes around the bazaar.
Around 500,000 Polish refugees entered Iran during the war through Anzali, contributing immensely to Iranian culture and cuisine.

The large Polish cemetery in Anzali is testament to their presence.
No visit to Anzali would be complete without a lagoonside meal!
We're heading back on the road, up into the forests of Gilan yet again!
The road from Asalem, on the Caspian coast, to Khalkhal, in the interior is a mist-covered beauty! And a perfect place to stop for some corn.
Khalkhal is the perfect place to stop for a typical Iranian breakfast- fresh barbari bread, an omelette, and sarshir (heavy cream) with locally made honey!
From Khalkhal, it's a quick drive up into the mountains to Ardebil, a former Safavid capital city where the weather is cool year-round, thanks to its altitude.
Ardebil is in the heart of Iranian Azerbaijan.

About 1/4 of Iranians - 25 million people - speak Azeri Turkish as their mother tongue, far more than in neighboring Republic of Azerbaijan.

Banners here, especially for religious occasions, are often written in Azeri.
In Iranian Azerbaijan, Azeri is written in Persian script. But sometimes you see it written in Latin letters, to cater to tourists from across the border.
Now for the real reason we're in Ardebil! The tomb of Sheikh Safi al-Din, a stunning architectural masterpiece.

It's home to the tomb of the Safaviyya Sufi order's founder. The Safavids went on to conquer Iran and ruled from 1500s to the 1700s as the Safavid Empire.
Originally Kurdish, the Safavid founders moved to Iranian Azerbaijan and absorbed Azeri Turkish culture, before becoming leaders of a Persian empire.

The Safavids converted to Shi’ism - and they converted most of Iran along with them.
And don't forget to look up!!
From Ardebil, it's a two hour drive to the mysterious city of Shehr Yeri, a Neolithic city whose ruins date back around 7,000 years.

The site is known as the City of the Mouthless for the markings that cover hundreds of big stones and boulders, arranged atop a vast hill.
The most distinctive stones have been gathered at the bottom of the hill for protection; but as other photos show, atop the hill more than 500 of these big stones are arranged in what was once a holy site.

The oldest remains date to around 6000 BC.
Now it's onward to Tabriz, the cultural and social heart of Azerbaijan!

Tabriz was a major turn of the century intellectual hub, playing a key role in the 1905-12 Constitutional Revolution, when Iranians rose up to demand an end to absolute monarchy and a constitution.
The beautiful bazaar of Tabriz, the largest covered marketplace in the world.

The bazaar has existed for at least 1,300 years, a key stopping point on the Silk Road and today the heart of commercial life of Iranian Azerbaijan.
The bazaar flourished when Tabriz was the capital of Iran during Safavid rule, and it’s grandiose serays hosted traders from across the region.
No visit to Tabriz is complete without a quick stop at the book bazaar in the city's main park.
From Tabriz, we're in for a quick stop at the cliff village of Kandovan, built as a series of caves into volcanic rock on the edges of Mount Sahand.

Known as troglodyte dwellings, these cave homes are found around inactive volcanoes.
Kandovan was said to have been settled 700 years ago, as villagers took safety in somewhat hidden mountain caves, expanding them over the years.

Today the village is fronted by newer mud brick houses, leading down to farming terraces in the small river valley below.
And a quick sunset dip in Lake Urmia, the largest saltwater lake in the Middle East and freshly full up after a winter of heavy rain and snow.
In the mountains north of Tabriz, along the River Aras that today forms the border between Iran on one side and Armenia and Azerbaijan on the other, sits a series of Iranian Armenian monasteries dating back over 1,000 years.
St Stepanos Monastery was established in the 600s and grew extensively in the Middle Ages, by the 1300s becoming a major center of Armenian cultural and intellectual production spurred by the monks based here.
In the early 1800s, Russia invaded the Caucasus - until then part of Iran - as part of its colonial expansion. They reached the river Aras, which became Iran’s new border. And this river that once facilitated back and forth across the region became over night a dividing line.
The Aras River Valley is one of the strangest borders I’ve ever seen- especially strange for a seemingly calm border that’s an active war zone.
As you drive on the south side in Iran, passing centuries-old Armenian churches, you see no less than 4 borders on the northern side-Naxchivan, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and finally Republic of Azerbaijan. The shallow river is all that divides you from what was once all USSR.
Since the late 1980s, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a war directly across the river.

While in Iran Azerbaijanis and Armenians live together still, across the river these border mark ethnic dividers.
This is Shepherd’s Chapel. It's on the Iran side of the Iran-Azerbaijan border.

It used to have a twin across the river, but as part of Republic of Azerbaijan’s to eliminate any reminder of Armenian history on their soil, it’s twin was demolished.
On the way back, a quick stop around Tabriz's cute old town before we proceed on our last leg of the journey!
Gardaneh Heyran, a steep mountain road through the foggy Hyrcanian forests of northwestern Iran.

Iran’s Caspian coast is covered in these ancient forests, and as you reach their heights the peaks become covered in thick mist, even at the height of summer.
And a last cup of tea, overlooking the beautiful mountain village of Heyran, just above the Caspian Sea.
I hope you enjoyed this quick journey through northwestern Iran!

If you're looking for more, check out my Instagram stories, where I post more detailed photos and stories from travel across Iran!

instagram.com/alex_shams/

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Alex Shams

Alex Shams Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @alexshams_

Feb 9
Last night Biden referred to Egypt's dictator Sisi as the "President of Mexico"

The Egyptian internet is going NUTS

For years Egyptians have used "Mexico" as code for Sisi to avoid censorship since it's forbidden to criticize his regime

So the memes are just rolling out...
Image
Image

Image
Image
This guy on the left was apparently the first one to call Sisi "the Mexican" in a viral video

More on the backstory:


Image
Image
Read 8 tweets
Oct 22, 2023
Anyone calling for a "two-state solution" is totally checked out of reality.

Israel has spent five decades building settlements across the West Bank that make a Palestinian state an impossibility

That was literally the point - and the US sent Israel billions of $ to do it
Image
Israelis and Palestinians live in a one-state reality.

Israel controls land and sea borders and airspace.

It controls everyone's lives, directly or indirectly, through civilian or military rule.

Either this one state will be democratic or, as it is now, an apartheid state.
The two-state solution is “not a serious idea if you’ve been paying attention to reality for the last 15+ years”
Read 4 tweets
Jul 27, 2023
The other day I stumbled upon this pin at a flea market in Mexico.

It resembles a flamenco dancer’s fan, and in the center is what looks like Arabic - but not quite...

It's Pseudo-Arabic!

An unexpected legacy of Islamic rule that made its way to Mexico. A thread... Image
I could almost read Allah (الله). Staring harder, I realized the writing didn't make sense.

It was seemingly copied from an Arabic seal that was reversed and added to by someone who didn’t understand it and thus garbled it.

The point wasn't the words - it was the aesthetic Image
When you reverse the pin, you can get a clearer sense of the original Arabic. It seems to be a royal seal

But by reversing it, whoever made the pin ignored the text's original meaning - and by adding it onto a flamenco pin, made it recall an Arab Andalusi aesthetic Image
Read 14 tweets
Sep 23, 2022
Some are asking whether Iran's uprising is against religion

It's not. It's a rebellion for freedom and against tyranny

For 40 years, the state has used religion to repress. It has killed and tortured in God's name

It is Iran's government that has done the most to profane Islam
If a gov't smacks people over the head with a Bible every day for 40 years, is it really so hard to understand that people will resent the Bible?

This is the problem with a state that defines itself as God's representative:

Every act of violence is done in the name of God
In 2009 I went to the streets asking “Where is my vote?” demanding transparency after a rigged election.

I was pulled off the street by Basijis, taken into a mosque, and beaten.

The govt has put Basiji offices in mosques as a strategy to equate their dictatorship with religion
Read 10 tweets
Sep 19, 2022
In recent days, protests have broken out across Iran condemning the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, at the hands of morality police.

United in anger at police brutality and restrictive moral codes, Iranians are demanding freedom and an end to government repression: ImageImage
The protests are astonishing in their scope and also the bravery of protestors. Many are women who have removed their scarves to protest the mandatory veiling law

Many veiled women have also joined in, disgusted by the use of Islam and religion as a weapon to punish other women: ImageImage
One of the most common chants has been:

Zan, Zendegy, Azadi
Woman, Life, Freedom

Pointing to the central place of women in the cause and the demonstrations themselves:

Image
Read 43 tweets
Jun 16, 2022
Situating the Malay World in the Persianate Cosmopolis

Dozens of Malay words attest to role of Persian in trade and governance: pasar (bazar), angur (grape), bandar (port), dewan (council), istana (palace), ...

The question is how and when they arrived:

journals.openedition.org/moussons/3572?…
"Iranians dominated trade in the area until as late as the 17th century, with Persian nakhodas in charge of great portions of the Indian Ocean trade, including long-haul links such as between the Persian Gulf, Surat and Masulipatnam and the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya (Siam)"
I'm currently studying some Indonesian and was pleasantly surprised that I kept encountering very familiar looking words all over the place...
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(