Cala Ataperistan – Castle of the Fire-Worshippers
Location: Buali Hotel, Hamedan, Iran
Date: 23rd April, 2008
After a late night, we got started at a reasonable hour, we were on the road by 0830. We were on the road for about 3 minutes before we arrived at the Iranian National Museum. The museum is quite small, and therefore easily digestible. The post-Islam section is currently closed, but the pre-Islam section is fascinating.
It’s rare you see artifacts from 7000 years ago, and even more rare to see them in great shape. Iran truly has a long history… I was even happier to see the Darius and Xerxes bas-relif, a part of history I’ve always been interested in. The workmanship was impressive, and the sword of the bodyguard was incredible.
A quick return to the hotel, changed some money and picked-up the passports we forgot (!) and we were on our way, though the Tehran traffic.
We were lucky enough to miss rush-hour again, so the traffic wasn’t that bad. A lot of people complain about how crazy it is, but to me at least it’s not that bad. One thing the drivers do here that you see so little of in the US and UK is PAY ATTENTION! Given that it is a little crazy, if you drove with the same care and attention you drive I-25, you’d be bending metal real soon.
Leaving Tehran, we headed for Saveh, where nearby was a place I’d wanted to visit for years – Cala Ataperistan.
Only one of my friends and his family have been here, Jim Laurel, and you can read about his experience on his site, spectare.com. Jim had previously told me the story of Cala Ataperistan and I was hooked. Not only is the castle perched on a Tolkienesque craggy mountaintop inaccessible from 3 sides, infrequently visited (our guide, Amir, nor any of his contacts had heard of it), but it’s supposedly the home of one of the Magi. Paul William Roberts also writes about it in his book, “Journey of the Magi“, which I recommend as a great piece of travel writing. Another famous visitor to the site was none other than Marco Polo.
When I mentioned we were visiting Iran, Jim dug-out the co-ordinates and a rough description of how to find it. Now Jim had a Land Rover Discovery, and we’re in a regular saloon/sedan with only 2 driven wheels. I was naturally a bit anxious about getting there. But armed with a map, GPS and a set of co-ords, we left Saveh heading west, on the Hamedan road.
Surprising myself, we turned off the road to a village at the foot of a mountain range we later found out is called “Asiabacke Band”. The tarmac soon gave way to dirt, and we stopped by a small store in the middle of the village to ask about “the castle”.
It turns out that no-one locally knows the name “Cala Ataperistan”, instead they call it “Ghez Ghale” – the Castle of the Daughter. All we learned about that story is that it was built by a lady around 2000 years ago (and of course, that ties in nicely with the Magi story)!
We were on the right track, and as we rounded a corner I was sure I could make out a regular pattern on a crag in the mountains around 5km away, according to the GPS. Leaving the village, the road swung around, crossed a dry river bed and headed in the right direction. After another 10 minutes of careful driving, the road ended at a path winding up to the castle! I was so happy to have made it, it was clear we were in the right place.
Cala Ataperistan is in a defensive position to die for, as I’m sure they did. Surrounded on 3 sides by steep, craggy slopes and the only access is via a steep walk to a single pass which was clearly well guarded, up another steep slope to the castle itself. Steps have recently been cut into the slope, for which we were grateful, but they were unexpected. Anyway, we hiked up, jumping over streams (so the place had a good supply of water) and getting to the top in 15 minutes or so.
It’s clear this place is old, and it’s sometimes difficult to see where the rock ends and the castle begins. There are a collection of crumbling outbuildings but the main building is is surprisingly good shape.
You have to climb up into the main castle, I’m sure health and safety people would have a fit if they saw it. It’s a bit of a scramble, but worth it. Next up you have to cross a floor which has a couple of large holes in it, just enough to fire up the Indiana Jones gene!
Once inside, you can see it’s been added to over the years. The original building consisted of 8 rooms, each with a fireplace and the kind of window that makes bad guys shudder. The 8 rooms, 4 on each side separated by a front to rear corridor, were about 10m long by 2m wide.
Making our way to the front, it was clear we were not on solid rock anymore, as there were more holes in the floor. Of course, I jumped down one (I think I heard my wife saying something about “don’t go down there”, nah, I’m sure I didn’t), which opened into an arched room which itself had a basement. The room was made of mud-brick and had led to other rooms with clearly defensive purposes, with arrow slits, etc. There was also a collapse at the front with a 45 degree slippy slope down to a cliff. Kristy ignored her own advice and had followed me down and was exploring away herself.
After enough exploring and soaking up the atmosphere that’s unique when you have free reign over a place like this, we scrambled out (more exciting than getting in), and headed back to the car where Amir, in fine style, had put the kettle on, perfect timing for a cuppa.
Over tea, we met a shepherd and invited him over. He told us some stories about the castle, including mentioning again it was built by a lady 2000 years ago. Drinking his tea through a lump of sugar he held in his mouth, he told the story of how some Americans had visited pre-revolution (which we took to mean early 1970’s), and were hunting for treasure. It wasn’t clear if they’d found any but he clearly wasn’t impressed! We hope Kristy left him with a better impression. He also told stories of how Europeans would come here, pre-revolution, and camp at the base of the hill. Finally, he told us that they are planning to put in a tarmac road to the site – I fear that it’s too fragile to handle many visitors so I have to hope that it’ll be another one of those projects that can take a long, long time in this part of the world…
He mentioned he had 6 kids, 3 of the daughters so Kristy dug out some gifts, hairbands and the like, for them. His stoic face lit up, and after much handshaking and thanks, he remembered his goats and left us at a pace!
Honk, Steer, Brake!
Location: Ferdossi Grand Hotel, Tehran, Iran
Date: 22nd April, 2008
We got a bit of a late start, but it was our first full day in Iran and we’re weren’t going to let that bother us (though getting to Tehran after midnight after some exciting night driving made us regret is slightly).
Kristy needed a lighter scarf as the one she got in the US was proving to be too big and too warm for this weather. She got one in the first shop we passed, the people are super-helpful here. I’m just glad I don’t have to wear the damn thing…
After a nice lunch in the Polo Kababi Restaurant in Rasht, we stopped for some cookies and got drawn in to the friendly guys doing the baking. I don’t know how you can eat them with as much sugar as they have, but we bought some anyway.
Onwards to the mountain village of Masouleh, which is a retreat for the Tehran-ese in the summer and is a wonderfully relaxed village with plentiful tea-shops and alleyways lined with shops selling tourist-tat, though in a remarkably relaxed way. A complete contrast from Morocco, as the streets here reminded me of the Medina in Fes.
After some tea, we started the long drive to Tehran. The good news was we’d get there so late we’d miss the chronic traffic of rush-hour. The bad news is we had some night driving.
There are three rules of driving in Iran:
1. Honk
2. Steer
3. Brake, but only if you really have to
Once you accept this, you’ll do well. Our drive was of two halves, one an older, mostly triple lane highway and the other a modern motorway. The first section made for some excitement, punctuated by a stop for olives and some pomegranate paste, the second was a 140 kph blast into Tehran.
En-route we picked up some olives and pomegranate paste.
Finally, we’d been invited by Amir for dinner at his home with his family. It was delightful! We were made to feel much at home, and had a delicious meal. Kristy finished off the evening with some photos of home.
We got to our hotel tired but happy, and almost sleeping on our feet!
