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An Spailpín FánachAn Spailpín Fánach
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An Spailpín Fánach

An Spailpín Fánach

Auld fella; soon to be a'knockin' on heaven's door; but not today. I aim to travel for 3-4 months a year to other places and lands far away from my beautiful green island. For the rest of the year, I work as a psychotherapist in inner-city Dublin. Read more🇮🇪Dublin
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    • An Spailpín FánachAn Spailpín FánachSilk Road Trip

      Traditional Cafe and Meal

      October 2, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

      Just had this interesting lunch in Shariz in a traditional cafe.

      It was a tradition dish called Dizi, a lamb, chickpea, tomato and potato stew. You pour the broth from the crock into the big bowl and tear up the bread into it. Then you mash what remains in the crock with the metal masher. You take a spoon of the broth and bread mix together with a scoop of the mash from the crock and gobble it up or down. It came with the tiniest limes I have ever seem. They were incredibly good., like taste bombs, good enough to wear as aftershave.

      It was followed by Turkish coffee served as an Americano and minus the dregs. Delicious. It came with dark rich chocolate.

      The place itself is like a museum of prerevolutionary Iran and run by two delightful, smiling and beautiful women who push Islamic dress code to its limit.

      Thrre are several cages of Canaries singing there little hearts out and jazz and showband music coming from an old valve radio in the background. The sun is streaming in and there's a lively warm breeze.

      Not at all what you would expect in Iran, this amazing and astounding country.

      When I arrived and was seated, one of the women brought me a load of photo albums from the old days. There were some great photos in them from an era long gone.

      I feel satiated and satisfied      Read more

    • An Spailpín FánachAn Spailpín FánachSilk Road Trip

      Sarv-e Abarkuh 4,000 Year Old Tree

      September 30, 2018 in Iran

      This was a delightful little stop while on the road to Shiraz. The tree itself was a bit meh but the little cafe attached was brilliant. It was quirky and idiosyncratic and served real coffee, instead of the ubiquitous Nescafe. It also had a little shop attached.

      Iranians, I have noticed, take great care in decorating their homes and public spaces. Every little nook and cranny is filled with something interesting and colourful. This place was no exception and was like an Aladdin's cave.      Read more

    • An Spailpín FánachAn Spailpín FánachSilk Road Trip

      Towers of Silence, Yazd

      September 30, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

      A very interesting place we visited on our way out of Yazd.

      In the Zoroastrian tradition, once a body ceases to live, it can immediately be contaminated by demons and made impure. To prevent this infiltration, Zoroastrians purified the dead body by exposing it to the elements and local fowl on top of flat-topped towers in the desert called dakhmas.

      According to a tradition dating back over 3,000 years, bodies were arranged on the towers in three concentric circles. Men were placed in the outer circle, women in the middle, and children in the inner-most ring. Bodies were then left until their bones were bleached by the elements and stripped by the vultures.

      After the process of purification, bones were placed in ossuaries near, or inside, of the towers. Ossuaries from these rituals have been discovered from the 4th and 5th century BCE. Similar dakhmas exist just outside of Mumbai, India, as well, although the most prominent “Towers of Silence” are in Iran.

      As Iran developed and urbanized, dakhmas became increasingly closer to city limits, severely curtailing their use. Since the 1970s, the use of dakhmas has been illegal in Iran, forcing orthodox Zoroastrian’s to adapt to new burial methods. Many in the Zoroastrian community have moved to burying bodies beneath concrete, to keep out all contaminants.

      Although the towers are no longer used in ceremony, they can be visited along with a number of the ossuaries in the area.      Read more

    • An Spailpín FánachAn Spailpín FánachSilk Road Trip

      Chak Chak Zoroastrian Fire Temple

      September 29, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      This was an interesting and very ancient Zoroastrian Fire Temple on top of a very steep peak. There was a long winding stairs but it was totally knackering walking up there.

      Chak Chak (Persian: چك چك‎ – "Drip-Drip", also Romanized as Chek Chek; also known as Chāhak-e Ardakān and Pir-e Sabz (Persian: پیر سبز‎) "The Green Pir")is a village in Rabatat Rural District, Kharanaq District, Ardakan County,Iran. At the 2006 census, its existence was noted, but its population was not reported.

      The village consists of a pir perched beneath a towering cliff face in the desert of central Iran. It is the most sacred of the mountain shrines of Zoroastrianism. Located near the city of Ardakan , Chak Chak serves as a pilgrimage point for pious Zoroastrians. Each year from June 14–18 many thousands of Zoroastrians from Iran, India and other countries flock to the fire temple at Pir-e Sabz. Tradition has it that pilgrims are to stop riding the moment they catch sight of the temple and complete the last leg of their journey on foot.

      In Zoroastrian belief, Chak Chak is where Nikbanou, second daughter of the last pre-Islamic Persian ruler, Yazdegerd III of the Sassanid Empire, was cornered by the invading Arab army in 640 CE. Fearing capture Nikbanou prayed to Ahura Mazda to protect her from her enemies. In response to Nikbanou's pleadings, the mountain miraculously opened up and sheltered her from the invaders.

      Notable features of Chak Chak include the ever-dripping spring located at the mountain. Legend has it that these drops are tears of grief that the mountain sheds in remembrance of Nikbanou. Growing beside the holy spring is an immense and ancient tree said to be Nikbanou's cane. Legend also has it that a petrified colorful cloth from Nikbanou was also visible in the rocks, although pilgrims have since removed it.

      The actual temple of Chak Chak is a man-made grotto sheltered by two large bronze doors. The shrine enclosure is floored with marble and its walls are darkened by fires kept eternally burning in the sanctuary. In the cliffs below the shrine are several roofed pavilions constructed to accommodate pilgrims.      Read more

    • An Spailpín FánachAn Spailpín FánachSilk Road Trip

      Kharanaq Deserted Village and Fortress

      September 29, 2018 in Iran

      We stopped at this deserted village for a leg stretch and also to have a quick look. As luck would have it, we were soon spotted by the few locals who were around and in a few minutes a guy drove up on a scooter and spoke with our Iranian tour guide. it turned out that the whole village was a conversation and restoration site and that he was the curator and main source behind things here. He offered to open the place up and show us around. this he did with typical Iranian friendlines and passion. He certainly knew his stuff. Afterwards, he brought us to a little family run cafe where we had some tea.

      Sitting in a remote valley about 70km (43 miles) north of Yazd in Central Iran, is the deserted and crumbling mud-brick village of Kharanaq. The site has been occupied for approximately 4,000 years, while the dilapidated adobe buildings that draw foreigners from around the world date back around 1,000 years. The abandoned town is a photographer’s dream with a labyrinth of streets, tunnels, passageways, and rooms, as well as more impressive buildings such as a tiny mosque, a shaking minaret, and an old caravanserai that welcomed merchants and pilgrims centuries ago.

      Kharanaq, which means ‘place of birth of the sun’, is divided into two parts – the Old Town, which is almost completely deserted, and the New Town, where some 130 families continue to live.

      The Old Town was constructed with sun-baked mud bricks, forming one of the largest collections of adobe buildings in Iran. It was once a prosperous farming village, but when water supplies dried up the inhabitants left, leaving the town to turn to ruins.

      In recent years, a New Town was constructed within 2km (1.4 miles) of the ancient town with government-supplied water and electricity. Apart from a few elderly people who refused to leave their old houses and continue to live among the ruins, the rest of the Old Town’s inhabitants moved to the New Town.      Read more

    • An Spailpín FánachAn Spailpín FánachSilk Road Trip

      Yazd

      September 28, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      Spent a few days here in Yadz and stayed at Firoozeh Hotel (http://www.firoozehhotel.com/en). The highlight was the amazing windcatchers and the adobe buildings

      Yazd, formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of Yazd Province, Iran. The city is located 270 km (170 mi) southeast of Esfahan. At the 2011 census, the population was 529,673, and it is currently 15th largest city in Iran. Since 2017, the historical city of Yazd is recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

      Because of generations of adaptations to its desert surroundings, Yazd has a unique Persian architecture. It is nicknamed the "City of Windcatchers" (شهر بادگیرها Shahr-e Badgirha) from its many examples. It is also very well known for its Zoroastrian fire temples, ab anbars (cisterns), qanats (underground channels), yakhchals (coolers), Persian handicrafts, handwoven cloth (Persian termeh), silk weaving, Persian Cotton Candy, and its time-honoured confectioneries. Yazd is also known as City of Bicycles, because of its old history of bike riders, and the highest amount of bicycle per capita in Iran. It is reported that bicycle culture is entered and developed from Yazd, in contacting with the European visitors and tourists in the last century      Read more

    • An Spailpín FánachAn Spailpín FánachSilk Road Trip

      Desert One Crash Site

      September 28, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      This was the crash site of the crash during the aborted attempt to free the US hostages in Tehran in 1980.

      Interesting article here:https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/20…Read more

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