When Shah Abbas set out from Daulatabad with the “six hundred handsome young men” witnessed by Muratowicz, the first stop properly outside Isfahan on the thousand kilometre walk (in 1601) was at Ribat Qazi Ahmad. Melville couldn’t find this ribat (fort) on the War Office Quarter-Inch maps he worked with to retrace the walk – …
For those of you who are claustrophobic, here is a rare chance (for the next few days ONLY: don’t delay, the BBC will take it off the internet soon) to see inside a qanat – a traditional Iranian underground irrigation canal. Click here for the film – to see the qanat section, watch from 15 …
On the 10th of November 1618, some servants who were up very early in the morning reported to Figueroa, the Spanish Ambassador, that they had seen “une grande meteor au ciel”. When another valet and some Armenians also saw something the next night, the Ambassador decided to wait up and observe for himself. Sitting outside …