Ursula's Travelogues: Tales from the Dark Side: Day 3 (1 of 2)

Today, we left early, but I was up even earlier to take a shower and let my hair dry. I had a less hurried breakfast, but still a little hurried. We were going to Necropolis and Persopolis in the morning, then back to the city for a couple more sights.

We arrived at Necropolis and got past the souvenir vendors and saw doggies.

There were a couple dogs out. This one photographed on the left was more friendly.

Then we got up to Necropolis.

Original and stylized photo as made by my phone.

This building once housed the archives of Necropolis.

This area of Iran has a lot of farming.

The post on the left - you will see it in other photos - used to have a fire that was lit at night to let the people on the Silk
Road that they were on the right track

The image on the right is a close-up of the square seen in the image on the left.

Selfies taken at the same spot, facing different directions.

After an hour, we got some souvenirs, and I managed to not be swindled out of 90,000 Rial (or about $3? the multiple of ten keeps shifting, seemingly at random). Then we were on the bus to Persopolis.

On the road approaching the ruins, there were some festivly dressed camels that I couldn't get a photo of.

Then we were at Persopolis.

I typed out a crabby rant while standing on the column base on the left. It was cathartic.

The original flanked by two stylized photos from my phone.

This was my favorite image, for some reason. It is a lion eating a bull. The guide did not know the symbolism.

The inscriptions on the right are in two languages.

Guests bearing gifts.

The inscription on the left is in Persian, as I recall. It is the same information as the other inscriptions.

At a certain point of waiting under the shaded area for us to move on, I decided to break away and go up to see more ruins.

When I got back down, I asked if I could climb the hill to one of the tombs, and they gave me 20 minutes, so I went up. You can see the joy in my selfie at being able to go up to this place and get this view.

Pure joy.

The ruins of Persopolis. Click the image for a video.

On the way down, I started talking to two American women, one that I met on the elevator earlier, after hearing them talk about resources for vitamins and nutrition important for pregnant women. I approached them and mentioned WIC and that my mother worked for them. One of the women, the one I had not met before said that she was a doula. We talked a little bit and I learned that they were also on a tour of their own, but this was the end of their trip and they had started in Tehran. I mentioned that I had to go, but was nervous about going down. They offered to go with me, and at first, I waffles, but then took them up on their offer and we found a shallower way down than the one I went up. We said goodbye, and I ran off to Army Street, past the gates, and down the stairs (counting them this time, there were, as advertised, 111) to rejoin the group. The last of the group was descending the stairs with me, actually, so I wasn't late at all. At the shops, I looked around and ended up buying some magnets and a small replica of some carvings. The vendor took ffffffooooooorrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr to wrap it, then he put it in a plastic bag, then he gout out another bag for the magnets, put those in it, and folded it up carefully before putting it in the other bag and allowing me to take it. I have moved fast at this point, and I was the last on the bus. We were going on to lunch. We passed people having picnics among the trees, entrances to a hotel and a restaurant, and I finally got a photo of one of those camels!