In 1601, Shah Abbas the First started by walking northwards from his new and still only partly built capital, Isfahan, up towards the busy trading city of Kashan.
A Polish carpet merchant, Sefer Muratowicz, had dinner with Shah Abbas the night before the thousand-kilometre walk started and reported: “Starting the next morning, having put on a simple robe and shoes, the Shah set out on foot and walked for three days and with six hundred handsome young men”.