Tabriz → Hormuz

خوش آمدید! Hello!

My uncle and father have been teaching me the languages of the Middle East and I find I am doing quite well to keep up with conversations with locals.

In Tabriz, we lodged in a neighbourhood known as the Qaleh, or fortress. It is considered the Christian quarter of the city, and used to be separated from the Muslim community by a wall.

Tabriz Bazaar

Tabriz is a very modern city, mostly concrete buildings as earthquakes have now destroyed nearly everything old. There is the exception of a bazaar, an enormous structure with massive bricks walls reaching high to clasp in elegant arches. Inside these walls is where Iran’s busiest carpet mart thrives. It is a bazaar full of delights and temptations, the luscious carpets – rolled up on the back of pushcarts or spread out in splashes of colour across the worn, brick floors – windows of jewellery casting tinted light across the walls, the din of hundreds of shouting buyers, sellers and window-shoppers filling the air.

Departing Tabriz, we made our way southeast to Hormuz. The journey was quite enjoyable. We didn’t travel alone as we have for much of our journey, instead joining a group of about twenty travellers, headed for Yazd. They were very entertaining people, kind and friendly and with plenty of stories to tell. One of our companions regaled us with the tale of the valley of the assassins in northern Iran, and the origin of the word. This came from an old myth about a man in the mountains who would drug travellers with hashish, and tell them of their divine duty to murder whoever he told them to. He was, as the man said, “minded to dispatch them to paradise.” And the word assassins derived from the hashshashins, the name given to the drugged men.

However, despite their attempts to distract me, I soon became very weary of this long stretch of country, and found myself unable to get comfortable. There were very few sights to excite me, the land monotonous, just high desert, prickly with thornbush, and very few towns to stop in.

I was indescribably glad to finally see Yazd rising ahead. It is an oasis town, with tunnels, qanats, that bring water from the mountains miles away. We didn’t stop there long, bidding our caravan-of-sorts adieu, heading onward towards Hormuz. We passed through beautiful mountain scenery which was a sight for sore eyes, before regrettably descending down to a vast hot plain. We passed through what father described as the remains of Qamadin, a trading town where the route, which brought pepper and other spices from India, joined the highway coming up from the gulf. Maffeo said invaders had ruined the town several times.

Hormuz Bay

The three of us are currently in Hormuz. Our goal was originally to sail to China, however we were not convinced of the seaworthiness of the boats that were supposed to take us across. We intend to backtrack along the path we just travelled and continue east, following the famed Silk Road through Iran and Afghanistan to reach China. I am not looking forward to repeating the journey again, not least because Hormuz is so beautiful. I am glad to spend if only a few more days here, just to wander through the town. There is an incredible array of spiceries and precious stones and pearls and cloth of silk and of gold and elephant tusks among many other wares.

For now I am going to enjoy the nearby hot mineral springs, which I am told to be good for many diseases and for the itch. I will write again next time!

Arrivederci!