Back in October, I had the opportunity to go on a tour to Iran for nearly 3 weeks. It was an amazing, eye opening, wonderful, yet challenging trip. I visited much of western Iran, from Tehran from up into the northwest corner, all the way down through the Fertile Crescent, back up through the desert around the middle of the country and back to Tehran. It was a whirlwind, but I learned so much about the country, which Americans don’t often get the opportunity to do.
It was a little scary entering the country, because they held us for an hour at passport control without any word on what was going on while they copied all of our passports with the world’s slowest scanner or photocopier. Then it was a long drive into Tehran, which has the craziest traffic I’ve ever seen in my life. From there, we took a lot of long bus rides and saw many UNESCO World Heritage sites and other amazing things. All the while, we were warmly welcomed by Iranians. Here’s some of my favorite pictures from the trip.
Takht-e Soleyman (Solomon’s Throne) – this huge UNESCO site was way out in the middle of nowhere and is a volcanic crater lake with different buildings from settlements over centuries, from the first millennia BC through the 13th century AD, surrounding it. I couldn’t even capture the entire lake in one shot.
A zoroastrian fire temple at Takht-e Soleyman. That low square toward the big wall near the background is where the fire was kept.
Vakil Mosque, Shiraz. Many of the mosques we visited were covered in gorgeous tiles. 
Citadel, Shiraz. The “Leaning Tower of Shiraz”.
The Pink Mosque (Nasir al-Mulk), Shiraz. It gets its name from the light that comes in through stained glass windows.
The Eram Garden, Shiraz. This is part of the Persian Gardens UNESCO site.
Friday Mosque, Yazd. We saw a lot of mosques. This was one of my favorites. 
The Tomb of Daniel, Susa. Men and women have to enter on different sides of the shrine, and I was told that only the men have access to the tomb.
Chogha Zanbil, near Susa, another UNESCO site. This is an ancient Elamite ziggurat, built about 1200 BC. It was 104 degrees the day we visited this, and I almost didn’t make it all the way around the ziggurat. But it was worth it.
And the Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System, Susa, also a UNESCO site. This system was built by Roman prisoners of war under the direction of Shapur I and is still in use today as a water mill. There are more waterfalls not shown in this picture, and the roar of the water is astounding!
I hope you enjoyed looking at these! I’ll be posting the second part of the photos soon.
I'm at the Library 