Articles from this Category
June 27, 2017
Many travellers make the assumption that Iran is not a safe place to travel to, that it is unstable and unfriendly. This is absolutely not the case. The tourism industry in Iran is still emerging and mainstream tourists are not flocking to Iran just yet. But there is a strong backpacking travel community and while most of what I write on BackpackerTrack.com is aimed at the budget backpacker, this itinerary should be ideal for all travellers.
June 25, 2017
Torpedownia is the Polish name given to the German torpedo research centers that were built on Polish territory during World War II. There are several of these, but the most well-known is found near the Polish town of Babie Doły just outside Gdynia. Hexengrund was the German name for the town of Babie Doły so the abandoned Torpedownia is often called Hexengrund.
June 1, 2017
A visit to one of Budapest’s thermal baths is one of the must do activities in Budapest. They are world famous and absolutely worth visiting. The history of Budapest has forever been linked with it’s thermal baths. One of the reasons the Romans first colonised the area is so that they could use the thermal springs for their baths.
June 1, 2017
Another reason that I returned to Kashan was to make a day trip to the Maranjab Desert and a nearby salt lake. The salt lake is a remnant of the Paratethys sea along with the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The temperatures in Iran can reach up to 50°C during the summer months and there is very little rain and snow.
April 23, 2017
Another reason that I returned to Kashan was to make a day trip to the Maranjab Desert and a nearby salt lake. The salt lake is a remnant of the Paratethys sea along with the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The temperatures in Iran can reach up to 50°C during the summer months and there is very little rain and snow.
April 20, 2017
Abyaneh is a village in Barzrud Rural District, in the Central District of Natanz County. It is located about 80km south of Kashan by car. Abyaneh is characterised by a peculiar reddish hue that comes from the mud bricks quarried from the mountains nearby. Like many of the traditional villages in Iran, these mud bricks are used almost exclusively to build the houses in the town.
April 17, 2017
What the hell are the Towers of Silence? Essentially they are a Zoroastrian structure used for excarnation or the ‘defleshing’ of a dead body. This excarnation takes place inside the pits located on top of a Tower of Silence! As the bodies break down, carrion birds, Vultures typically, would perform the excarnation.
April 13, 2017
Yazd is a destination in Iran that is packed with day-trip opportunities. One of those is Meybod, an ancient city that goes back to the pre-Islamic era of Iran and located 55km away. The centrepiece of Meybod, and the reason that it’s included in day trips, is the Narin Qal’eh castle. Narin Qal’eh is a mud brick fort built around 2000 years ago.
April 6, 2017
As part of my day trip out of Yazd, I visited a Zoroastrianism mountain shrine known as Chak Chak. Chak Chak is not just a small village in the mountains, but a Zoroastrian fire temple and the most sacred of the mountain shrines of Zoroastrianism.
April 3, 2017
My next stop in Iran was the city of Yazd to see among other things, the town of Kharanaq a 4,000 year old abandoned town 70 km from Yazd. Kharanaq is a city built entirely out of mud brick houses. While the town has been inhabited for 4,000 years, the mud brick buildings you see in these images date back around 1,000 years.