Aras Valley, Iran

20 Apr 2014

Single trips, Photography

Thirty days across Iran

Thirty days across Iran

Seen through a windscreen, a white Paykan saloon pulled onto the shoulder of a two-lane road running into a valley of bare, folded rock.
My road trip across the Aras Valley
A small white car on a gravel hairpin cut into a snow-covered slope, the valley below filled to the brim with cloud and distant snow peaks beyond it.
Up in the clouds
A tiled guesthouse reception: a denim jacket on a hanger, a plastic chair, a handwritten price board in Persian, and framed portraits of Khomeini and Khamenei above a wall clock.
Reception at a budget guesthouse – Mosâferkhâne
Looking out through a brick barrel-vaulted passage, its ceiling patterned with dark geometric lines, to a caravanserai courtyard of pale brick arches across a gravel yard.
Layers
Flat scrubland running to a low mountain range, a single bank of cloud trailing rain across the middle distance in fading light.
Sunset near Dasht-e Kavir
A stone-paved lane in Masuleh between timber-fronted houses stacked up the hillside, wooden shutters closed and Persian signs on a utility pole in the foreground.
Narrow street in Masuleh
An intricately tiled muqarnas vault in cream, turquoise and pink honeycomb cells above a carved stone portal, a band of yellow calligraphy across its base.
Narrow street in Masuleh
A covered mud-brick alley in Yazd, a row of pointed arches receding into daylight, brick plinths along the base of the plastered walls.
The ancient city of Yazd
The half-dome of a mosque iwan filled with faceted honeycomb vaulting in ochre brick and turquoise tile, a blue calligraphic band and a lattice screen below it.
Ceiling details of the Jame' Mosque
A livestock market under a corrugated roof, wire cages of chickens and songbirds stacked on trestles, three schoolboys with backpacks looking on from the left.
Outskirts of Isfahan
A crumbling mud-brick wall on a bare hillside above a valley of leafless poplars, dry hills and a mountain range under towering cloud.
Outskirts of Isfahan
A double-headed griffin capital in pale stone mounted on a plain column drum, standing among low earth banks on open grassland.
Standing ruins in Persepolis
A ramshackle courtyard tea house under corrugated iron, walls hung with handwritten Persian pages, a water pipe and tea tray beside an iron bench spread with carpets.
Local business in Shiraz
A woman in a black headscarf and coat stands alone before the tall stone tower of Pasargadae, its cracked face braced with metal frames, fallen blocks scattered around it.
Persian Valley of the Kings
An empty road between roofless mud-brick ruins in Yazd, bare walls patched with plaster and graffiti, a palm and low hills visible at the end.
Lost in Yazd
A rock-cut tomb facade carved high into a tan cliff at Naqsh-e Rostam, a grassy bank rising to it beneath a deep blue sky.
Persian Valley of the Kings
A worn arcade of receding plastered arches, red carpets laid down its centre, and a large portrait of Khomeini and Khamenei hanging at the far end.
Father and son
Two men in checked shirts study the open bonnet of a white saloon on the verge of an empty road, a long range of snow-covered mountains across the horizon.
Problems on the road to Tabriz

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Note

All photos taken across Iran with a Sony Alpha NEX-C3 16 mm

Further reading

Single trips timeline

Japan
Iran
USA
Apr 28
Apr 29
Mar 12
Mar 16
Mar 22
Mar 26
Mar 27
Apr 20
Sep 21
Japan sketchbook

Japan sketchbook

Tokyo

Japan Snapshots

Japan Snapshots

Tokyo

Wandering Through Urban Millennia

Wandering Through Urban Millennia

Yazd

Magic and Wonder on the Alamut Valley

Magic and Wonder on the Alamut Valley

Alamut Valley

A new year, a new life

A new year, a new life

Bandar-e Anzali

Babak Castle

Babak Castle

Aras Valley

A charming man

A charming man

Tabriz

Thirty days across Iran

Thirty days across Iran

Aras Valley

New York snapshots

New York snapshots

New York