beginnings of iran photos

i don't think i can begin to describe what it was like for me to go to iran. but i will try... little by little i will try. i did a ton of sightseeing while i was in iran. it was exciting and exhausting at the same time. our trip to shiraz went like this: we arrived back to tehran from our two day bus tour of hamadan around 10pm and had to wake up around 3am to catch our 5am flight to shiraz. allthough it seemed inconvenient at the time--i'm very glad we got there so early. shiraz is known for it's hot sun afternoons. in fact, businesses often close in the afternoon and re-open later--a siesta of sorts. it's just too hot. one of the many cousins i got aquanted with, babak, was our shiraz/persepolis tourguide. he really rocked it, too. i was lucky and glad that he was as excited by all of the history and importance in that area. takhteh jamshid. persepolis. the palace of the 200 yr persian empire. it took a few eras of kings to build this thing 2500 years ago. alexander the great came and set it on fire. such is the way, huh?