Mahan

It was a more civilized wake-up at 0700 for breakfast of greasy fried egg, bread sticks, jam and coffee.

Our organised transport turned out to be the driver which booted us out of the taxi at the airport yesterday for whatever reason due to communication difficulties. His job for the day was to take us to Mahan (about 35km away) and then Bam (another 150km further). The road for the entire journey was smooth and straight.

Our first stop in Mahan was Aramgah-e (Shrine of) Shah Nematollah Vali, a poet and mystic from the 1400s. The complex had a mosque, a beautiful turquoise cupola, two minarets, garden, courtyards and pools.

A caretaker took us to the roof and into one of the minarets. I truly felt like a guest rather than a tourist.

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: Petrol is IRR650 (about USD0.08) per litre.

: Aramgah-e Shah Nematollah Vali.

: Cupola of Aramgah-e Shah Nematollah Vali.

: Aramgah-e Shah Nematollah Vali.

: Minaret of Aramgah-e Shah Nematollah Vali.

: View from the Minaret of Aramgah-e Shah Nematollah Vali.

: Aramgah-e Shah Nematollah Vali.

: Aramgah-e Shah Nematollah Vali.

: Around Aramgah-e Shah Nematollah Vali.

Our second stop in Mahan was Bagh-e (Garden of) Shazdeh. This is a Qajar dynasty garden from the mid to late 1800s spreading across 5.5 hectares. It was beautifully designed with pavilions, pools, gardens.

The crowning glory, for me, was the multi-level stepped waterfall-style water-feature flanked by walkways and trees on both sides. The only letdown was the brown water in the pools; after all water is a scarce resource in the desert and it wasn’t practical to have keep replenishing and cleaning it just for aesthetics.

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: Shazdeh Garden’s crowning glory was the multi-level stepped waterfall-style water-feature flanked by walkways and trees on both sides.

: Shazdeh Garden’s crowning glory was the multi-level stepped waterfall-style water-feature flanked by walkways and trees on both sides. (Wikimedia Commons).