So when I left off my last blog, I was just landing in Ahwaz, starting the first visits of my trip.  On the road towards the first site, I got to know my guide, the lovely Leily, and my driver Abbas, who didn't talk much because of the language barrier, but who was always looking out for us!  I am still in contact with Leily, and we regularly communicate around Christmas time to catch up.

The ziggurat of Choqa-Zambil, our first stop, was very impressive.  I guess you could resume it as a "small stepped pyramid", although I would say that from what I remember, it was smaller than the pyramids of Gizeh in Egypt.  The ziggurat itself, built around 1250 BC, is only one building, the main temple complex, within an ancient city which was founded in the 2nd millenium BC. 

Walking around it was quite impressive, and we were lucky to get a bright sunny day (with the accompanying heat...), and being in the low season there was only a few visitors, so I could easily just imagine myself as a 19th c. explorer of Persian antiquities, with my umbrella to protect my pale complexion!!  What I remember the most vididly actually is the not the building itself, I think mainly because I tried not to look too high up to protect my eyes (it was a real shock for me all this heat and sun!), but actually the marks of "technology" around it.  We are used to think of the ancient times as living only with basic ammenities, even if the scale of the buildings is extreme - not with underground "piping" systems to transport water from miles away, and elaborate gates with locking systems.  Somehow I find it easier to relate to the people that used it 3000+ years ago when it was a system operated by an individual  rather than a place he just walked.

There is also at Choqa Zambil a "foot imprint" which apparently dates from the time the temple was used, and was used by the priests for a specific reason which I totally forgot.  I strongly suspect however that, somewhat less spectacularly, it was simply a working accident when the tiles were made by workers.  However, for the local guide (Leily did not provide this tour), the priestly footprint sounded much more interesting...

Near Choqa Zambil was our next stop, the ancient city of Susa (Sush or Shush) - one of the ancient capitals of the Persian Empire.  Susa dates back over 6000 years ago, and  was at its height in the first millenium BC, as one of the capitals for the Persian Empire under the Achemenid and the Parthian dynasties.  Unfortunately the site is not very impressive for a place of such importance - most of it was destroyed by the Mongols.  What was interesting was that there was a 19th c. castle right next to it, built as a residence for the French archaeologists who excavated the site at that time.  Most of the best pieces from Susa are therefore today in the Louvres in Paris (while I guess they might be safer there, I always feel some frustration when I am visiting a country and the most impressive artefacts are not there but in a European museum...), but there wass a local museum to see statues and other material culture.

Over part of the ancient city of Susa lies the modern town of Shush, which houses one of the surprises of this area of desert - gorgeous waterfalls!  There are about half a dozen low waterfalls right in the centre of town, with bright blue water pouring out of small aqueducts dating back to the Sassanids (first centuries AD); they make for a lovely sound and a nice cool break in this sweltering region!  In Shush also lies the tomb of the prophet Daniel, famous for having been thrown to the lions because of his Jewish faith. 

His tomb was my first encounter with the very Persian type of decoration with small mirror mosaics.  I encountered this throughout Iran, as thus yet not in other Middle-Eastern countries (although I have by no means seen all of them...).  The doors, the walls, the ceilings, most of it was covered in intricately carved mirrors that formed symmetrical motifs; whenever a glimpse of sunlight catches it, it is reflected endlessly, so that many of these buildings need only minimal artificial lighting.  And the sight is startling - sparkle sparkle!!

We came back for the evening in Ahwaz, where I had my first taste of walking in the local crowds, which I had been too tired to do when in Tehran before.  Ahwaz is on the borders of Iran and is much more conservative than the other great cities further east and north; there was quite a large quantity of women wearing the full chador (large and loose black dress and veil), more than in other cities I have seen, but still less than in the countryside.

My plan, besides just wandering about, was to buy myself a new overcoat - the one that I had made at home, although perfectly respectable, was maybe too much to my taste, now that I had seen how Iranian ladies really dressed.  And they can generally look very classy, you rarely see one looking "slouchy" unless they are wearing the full chador, and then you can't judge.  Besides, although I had carefully selected a thin material for mine at home, I wanted a second one so I could wash the first once in a while, and hopefully get it in an even lighter material.  My incursion in this non-touristy shop (such clothes are rarely souvenirs, and nobody comes here for the quality...) was great however, because it made me realise that underneath these overcoats, worn in public, the Iranian woman is not only very classy (in general) but also wears very much the same clothes we do at home.  There were vests or tank tops, jumpers with nice necklines, and all with the kind of fit you would expect in Europe or North America, that flatters the female form (they were not on display at the front, but they had images showing that they had them in stock.  In Tehran however you see those in vitrines).  Mind you, there are certainly women who do not wear those type of clothes, like here, but when towards the end of my stay I had dinner at my aunt's with some of her Iranian colleagues, it was obvious that around the table, within the intimacy of one's home, there was not real difference between our appearances.

Long story short (I'm disgressing!), I got a new overcoat, which has followed me since in all my travels in the Middle-East, because it takes very little place, looks good, and is acceptable in any mosque in the Muslim world - saves me from looking like a tourist around people praying, which I don't like when forced to wear those borrowed capes they give you. 

Note for the woman traveller! : For women in Iran, an overcoat that reaches down to the knee or just about is mandatory, although slits on the side are quite acceptable.  It must cover all the arms and the wrists if possible, and if it is low-cut on the chest, the woman will have to wear a shirt underneath that covers up to the base of her neck.  The hijab is also mandatory, but there is no problem if 1-2 inches of hair show on top, or if we see the neck.  Of course, we must wear long trousers at all times, but in big cities like Tehran and Esfahan, I've seen some women in sandals - I myself preferred closed shoes to keep the dust at bay.

That was the end of my first day on my journey, came back for a well-deserved rest at the hotel, and the next day we embarked on a very long road - eastwards towards Shiraz and Persepolis :)