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Iran is the only predominantly Shi'ite country in the world whose population has since Khomeini's revolution in 1979 been taught to strictly adhere to the doctrine of the Shia Islam.
Tehran is the capital city, the ceaselessly pulsating heart of this great, friendly and frequently misunderstood nation of sixty million. Situated on the southern slopes of the Elbrus mountain range that allows one to swiftly leave the smog of the 14-million person megalopolis and go skiing along with the girls in chadors who may be snowboarding. It is a city of old and new minarets from which muezzins remind the faithful of the supremacy of faith in the Islamic Republic. It is the capital city of a country dominated by the young; the number of female students exceeds that of their male counter-parts. It is a city of innumerable monuments to the stern Ayatollah, boutiques and Internet cafes. A noisy metropolis constantly rebuilt and crowded by Peykan cars and motorcycles in which, from north to south, plush villa-dotted city sections alternate with colorful ten-kilometer long covered bazaar alleys and suburbia inhabited by the poor.
In the south is Shiraz, the final resting place of the grandees of Persian Sufi mysticism, poetry and philosophy, Saadi and Hafiz. The latter's tomb is situated in a wonderful garden next to which is a popular tearoom. When Omar Khayyam, together with Ferdowsi, another great poet of epicureanism and love, wrote …'Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou'…, he was probably daydreaming of Shiraz. But wine is banned in Iran so that Khayyam is admired more as a mathematician. Shiraz has a fine fortress, interesting mosques and mausoleums, a Garden of Eden (Baghe Eram). But by far the greatest attraction in Iran is some 50 kilometers away.
Persepolis. The ancient ceremonial capital city of Persia that Darius I began to build in 512 B.C. Takht-e-Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid), the city's Persian name, was destroyed in 330 B.C. It is said that this was the revenge of Alexander the Great for Xerxes's ravaging of Athens 150 years earlier. The ruins that remain on the plateau remind one of Alexander and of the grandeur of the Persian Empire. Under a constantly clear sky, the basreliefs appear impressive – such as the Apadana Palace stairway - as they recount the history of Persia and its then 23 vassal states, spanning from India to Ethiopia.
Together with Shiraz, Isfahan is the jewel of Iran. One is at a loss as to which is more beautiful: the Imam Mosque and square flanked by the fascinating turquoise minarets, the muqarnas and the floral motifs of its interior, the arcades with probably the best carpets in the world, or the gentle meandering of the Zayandeh River, saddled with bridges and surrounded by parks.
Further to the east of spacious Iran is Yazd, the ancient Zoroastrian centre. Before the Arabs came, the teaching of the prophet Zarathustra from the seventh century B.C. led to a religion that was not only the Persians' main religion but also that of other nations living in a wide belt from Turkey to China. It has survived in Yazd, on a desert plateau some 500 kilometers southeast from Tehran. The Towers of Silence and the Fire Temple bear witness to this religion symbolised by the pomegranate, a divine fruit of unique skin texture embracing small seeds that represent the unity of the world. | 
