Visiting the Grave..Paying Homage to the Great Persian Poets

After our late lunch in a resto near Persepolis, we headed back to the city of Shiraz to visit another famous tourist spot. The Garden of Hafez and Saadi

(The tomb of Hafez)























As per Persian culture, they have prepared the tomb of Hafez with beautiful and well manicured garden.

(Interpreter!!!!)

(The golden libingan of Hafez)

When we visit the place, even at 4:00pm, a lot of people was still in the garden. The place is very much crowded, and since we're the only east asian in the throngs of people a lot of them we're looking at us. Tourist!!!

A must do here in the Tomb of Hafez is to touch the golden tomb. Since there's a lot of people who want to touch it i Just laid my finger on it and went away. Ayoko nga makipagsiksikan just to touch the tomb. =P

Since the concentration of people was in the tomb, I just help myself taking my pictures in the garden.

(me and the flowers..hehehe)

(i need an interpreter!)

(huh?asan?)

A cute tyke was playing near where we stand. We took picture of him, while his parents was looking. The kid is just so cute =D.

Another young boy ask us to take picture with him. We feel like a celebrity having our picture taken by many people. Hahaha. The family was so happy as well.

On to the next garden!!!

Next on the lsit was the Garden of Saadi. It's a 15 minute drive from the last garden. This is much bigger than the tomb of Hafez, it has underground restaurant and a lot of ponds with fishes.

(where's the fish???)

(dami parin tao kahit late na)

(gotcha!)

(touch the tomb again!)

(family day at the park...este garden)

(door leading to the tomb)

(gardens..gardens..everywhere)

(entrance of the underground resto in the garden)

One thing that really struck me about this place was the beautiful mosaic ceiling of the underground resto. It's so Persian!

And they had another underground pond inside, with fishes again.Galing!

And since we've been walking from afternoon till nightime, we refresh ourself by ordering an traditional Persian ice cream. The ice cream is made of sotanghon (yep, the chinese sotanghon you buy at the market) plus ice plus sweeteners. The people love it, but me, yaiks! And we tried to converse with some Iranian women, very nice of them to talk to us =D.

(me, jasper and our driver with his girlfriend)



















After the tiring evening, we went our way to the famous restaurant in downtown Shiraz. It was fun to visit this famous place. Really appreciate the Persian history and cultures.




















Bye!

Save the best for last....the Column hall

it's almost 1200 noon and the scorching heat makes you long for the cool, airconditioned room at the museum, and under the tree besides it.

The museum is right beside the most important part of the castle, the Treasury room!

History tells us that during the Godlen Age of Persepolis, it was considered as one of the richest kingdom in the east. Maybe that's why Alexander the Great was fascinated by the place and tried conquering it...and so he did. Alexander the Great conquered and looted Persepolis in 330 B.C. and, according to Plutarch, carried away its treasures on 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels. Soshal!

(Me and the imbakan of pera at the side)

Across the Treasury section the Throne hall is located. The place is like a majestic maze with differnt stone ballusters all over. Didn't get the idea on how it works though.

We we're suppose to go up the Throne hall but the guards tells us not to coz it's prohibited since the whole area is fragile and the stones might fell over us. Yaiks, don't want to die there, and I dont wanna see King Darius soon!

(No Entry....Exit only!)

(Bring in the Harems!!)

(Stolen shot of Jasper)

The last area that we've visited was the Hundred Columns area. It's just so hot that even my 50 pesos Cowboy Hat cannot protect me anymore from the heat of the sun. That's why we immediately pose for pictures then leave the place ASAP.

According to history, this area used to have hundred clolumns (hence the name Hundred columns was derive from)but since it was burned down by Alexander the Great, and this palce was buried for so many years under the rubbles of destruction (and sand and rocks, and earth), only a few remaining columns was recovered from the site.

(Jphil engineer rocks!)

(gardens on the side of the palace)

(Exhausted!)

(What's up there???)

(Presenting Persepolis!)

Another area of interest in the palace was the burial area of the other king of Persepolis. It was located on the mountain besides the majestic palace. ASme as nash-e-Rustam, the graveyard is adorned with many sculpture and manuscripts all depicting how the king live and ruled the kingdom. Unfortunately I didn't ahd a chance to went there because we forgot. We only took picture of it and settles with the experience of our friends who went up to the mountains to see the grave yard.

And there you have it. The visit to Persepolis was complete. But wait there's more after this. shiraz tour is far from over after our visit in Persepolis.

Still more to come =D.