Empires of Stone and Shadow

From the Ceremonial Ruins of Persia to the Sprawling Metropolis of Tehran

From a walled garden where poets have been mourned for six centuries to a stone terrace burned by Alexander and still standing, from the world's second-largest public square to a capital of fourteen million pressed against the foot of the Alborz Mountains -- this tour traces the full arc of Persian civilization across the Iranian plateau, from the Achaemenid Empire to the Qajar age and into the modern world.

Itinerary

1. The City Where Poems Outlive Empires — In a walled garden at the foot of the Zagros Mountains, poets buried fourteen centuries ago still draw pilgrims who weep over their tombstones.
2. Where Alexander Set the Match — Sixty kilometers northeast of Shiraz, the terraces of Persepolis rise from the Marvdasht plain -- a ceremonial capital burned after a banquet and still standing twenty-three centuries later.
3. Isfahan Is Half the World — Shah Abbas moved his capital here in 1598 and built a square so large it could house a polo field inside it. The Persian proverb has endured four hundred years.
4. The City the Mountains Made — Iran's capital of fourteen million sits at the foot of the Alborz Mountains, where Qajar palaces share a skyline with modern towers and ski resorts rise within an hour's drive.