Mad Maluja
Lay member
As recommended by @Mad Maluja I have started watching "Art of Persia" on BBC4.
IT'S BRILLIANT!
As much history as culture it's must watch viewing for all of us here.
Art of Persia, Series 1: Episode 1: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000k48g via @bbciplayer
It’s like strolling down memory Lane for me. I lived in Iran from 1972 to 1979 and it was a fantastic experience. My Halcyon days, then I had to come back and live in Blighty. I remember clambering up the rock face below the tombs of the Persian kings and the tomb of Cyrus. The mosque in Shiraz was amazing. I wish I could screen grab my memories. But the ziggurat at Chogazambil was awesome and is the inspiration for the ruins in the Red Desert of Gwenthia. The sand next to the ruin was strewn with bricks with cuneiform writing and tourists could just pick them up and walk off with them. Only a lonely illkempt watchman stood guard and didn’t stop anyone taking the bricks. It was sad to see. My dad had a Bedford motor caravan with the accordion style top. Waking up to see the ruins of Persepolis from the car park, as a kid, is one of my enduring memories. Alas the magnificent tents, bedecked in silks and chandeliers that the Shah had put to impress visiting dignitaries at a lavish show he hosted, have all been looted and only the steel skeletons are left behind (which are seen in episode 3 of the show if I remember). The summer palace of the shah in Shiraz had every rose there was available at that time.
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