Road of Poets and Pilgrims

Following the Ancient Silk Road from the Bazaars of Tabriz to the Holy Shrine of Mashhad

The ancient Khorasan Road ran east across northern Iran for two thousand years, carrying silk and spice, armies and scholars, merchants and saints. This tour follows that road from Tabriz -- where the Silk Road entered Persia from the west -- through Tehran and the desert edge at Semnan, to Mashhad, where thirty million pilgrims a year still come to pray at the golden-domed shrine of Imam Reza. It is a journey through layers: Zoroastrian fire temples beneath Seljuq mosques, Ilkhanid bazaars rebuilt after earthquakes, provincial towns transformed by martyrdom into holy cities.

Itinerary

1. The Gateway City — For a thousand years, merchants entering Persia from Anatolia came first to Tabriz -- to a covered bazaar so vast and ancient it still holds the record, and to a city that has been destroyed and rebuilt more times than memory can count.
2. The Capital That Rose from the Ruins — Iran's sprawling capital of fourteen million sits where the Silk Road once bent south toward the plateau -- a city of ancient bazaars and Qajar palaces, where the past and present argue constantly in the traffic.
3. The Desert's Edge — Two hundred kilometers east of Tehran, where the plateau tips toward the Great Salt Desert, a Seljuq-era mosque stands on the foundations of a Zoroastrian fire temple -- a layering of faiths that is quintessentially Iranian.
4. The City the Pilgrims Made — Iran's holiest city draws nearly thirty million pilgrims a year to the golden-domed shrine of Imam Reza, who was poisoned here in 818 CE and whose death turned a provincial town into the spiritual heart of Shia Islam.