TABRIZ
by Kambiz Taleghani
20081010
Arrived in Tabriz at night. Had a reservation at a "five star" Shahryar hotel.
It was a nice hotel, but I think one of those 5 stars was self-complementary. Very polite and efficient crew.
Had indoor swimming pool for both men and women. Good restaurant. Good Internet connection in the lobby.
None of the hotels in Iran seem to offer Internet in the room. I wonder if that is security-related. There
is another 4 star hotel in Tabriz, called Pars, which we heard was excellent, but it was full for the two nights we stayed
in Tabriz. (Look at the size of the Persian carpet in the picture, right!).
The founding of Tabriz is shrouded in mystery. According to various sources, the city was a site of the Biblical
Garden of Eden. The population ot Tabriz is about 1.6 million. It is warm in the summers, and very cold (up to 4 months
of below zero temp.) with much snow in the winter. The Earliest explicit mention of Tabriz occurs in the Assyrian king
Sargon II's epigraph in 714 BCE. Later references date back as early as the Sassanian period, including Encyclopedia Britannica,
the name Tabriz is said to derive from "tap-riz" ("causing heat to flow" in Iranian languages), from the
many thermal springs in the area. (adapted from Wikipedia)
Tabriz had one of the best r
estaurants we experienced during our trip through a dozen countries. That and the Gellert restaurant
in Budapest. I only wish I could remember the name. I will update the site if I remember.
Mostly traditional Azeri cuisine which is truly delicious and exotic. Lots of dried fruits, and fruit juices used
in cooking. Stuffed tomatoes, aubergines, grape leaves. Meat balls and duck cooked in ground walnut
and pomegranate juice/paste. Saffron chicken rice casserole cooked with yogurt and sour berries. Crispy
rice. Giant meat balls with ground nuts and a large prune set at the center. Numerous small side dishes.
A variety of kebabs and roasts. And so on ... Delicious.
Visited
two museums in Tabriz, which were the residents of princes and governors in 19th and early 20th century.
The current government had undertaken a nice job of restoring the structures, artifacts, old photographs, and paintings.
Very interesting. Very few visitors.
Later, in October 2008, I (Kambiz) was showing the pictures of the
museums to my mother, who lived in Tabriz in 1920's and early 1930's as a child. She suddenly gasped and
said that museum was her father's office! She recognized and remembered many things vividly. We
were watching a video I had recorded. She knew where the pool was before the camera truned! She
knew where the staircases and balconies where. Incredible. It was amazing to listen to her and
the level of detail that she was recalling the house. Her father, Leila's great grandfather, was
an educator who also had a doctorate from Sorbonne University (France) in Pediatrics and child psychology.
He was responsible for all aspects of education from Kindergarten to 12th grade. The education system of the day
was similar to that of Belguim and France.
(Note the candle-holders on the old
piano, below, right)
Leila's great grandfather and his family were
actually the residents one of the buildings, part of the same complex, and adjacent to the current museum.
Amazing! What a small world. I wish we had known it at the time. We would have paid much
more attention and taken many more photographs than we actually did.
Azerbaijan has a few of the oldest churches in the world, dating back to 2nd century a.d. (see Alban church under
"Sheki" in Azerbaijan Republic section of this website). We took a taxi to go for a visit.
At the entrance, they stopped us. Apparently, unless you can prove you are Christian, you cannot visit a church!
We were told that we have to go to the ministry of religious guidance (or something like that) and apply for permission to
go visit the church. Absurd. Obviously, they have not heard of tourism or see tourists in this
part of the world! Mind you, the church is happy to open its doors. Apparently it is the government that has placed
such restrictions!
Visited the famous Tabriz bazaar. It is HUGE: 1 square kilometer of covered space. That is 1 million
square meters, or 10 million square feet of covered space. It has about 8000 shops. Staggering site.
Among many others, Marco Polo visited this bazaar and mentioned it. We only saw a
very small fraction of one corner of the bazaar. Take a look at the clip which I found on the Internet.
Click here to see a tour of TABRIZ BAZAAR. The language of the clip is Persian and Turkish/Azeri. It is a very nicely made video. The reporter of the video is "Hamid
Reza Hosseini".
Azeri Turkish is the main language spoken in Tabriz. We took a few pictures and videos, but they don't
do the bazaar much justice! Many of the bazaar's merchants have had their business and store for many generations.
It is an institution by itself. The predecessor to the modern shopping malls. For a somewhat related story,
you can also Click here to read about the Money Merchants of Asia.
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Unlike Tehran, many people with happy faces on Tabriz
streets. Lots of singing and dancing heard in the parks in the evening. Lively. Also much
neater than Tehran's vicinity. Every little green space was taken by families at night on picnic. ... and
no sign of trash the next day. Very pleasant. Also, historically, an interesting place to stay and discover.
We wished to have had the time to stay longer in Tabriz, but we had already booked a container in the
port of Poti in Georgia to ship our car back to the U.S., and had to leave to be there in three days.
Little did we know at the time that on the day we were scheduled to deliver our car to the port in Georgia; Russia would bomb
the port of Poti! That event would eventually cause us to change plans, yet one more time,
and drive clear Westward accross Turkey -- to Istanbul! If you are interested
to read about that latest misfortune, Click here to see the story of the Aborted drive. Otherwise, you can click on one of the choices below.
