People - including me

Thursday, October 09, 2014
Esfahan, Iran
This is a collection of photos of people I have gathered in Iran. Explanations are as follows, relating to photo captions.

Family from Persian Gulf - I was struck by the bright clothes and my guide (Soheil) found out they were from the far south of Iran near the Persian Gulf . Like everyone I asked they were happy to have me take their picture. Some people asked me to take their picture when the thought hadn't crossed my mind.

Me taking pictures of myself - self-explanatory except it was in the mirrored terrace of a fine palace in Shiraz.

The Hamam - you've seen this one before. Ancient Hamam, the owner and Soheil.

Smokers in the tea house - we stopped off in the tea house for tea (obviously) and these guys were hard at work puffing away on their water pipes. No casual smokers them - it was non-stop bubble-bubble.

Newly married - at the poet Sa'di's shrine this young lady signalled they would like me to take their photo. Soheil wasn't around so I had no way of asking if they had an e-mal address to send it to. Only later did I spot the v-sign she is making and Soheil couldn't really explain it .

 Picnic - Iranians seem to love to picnic, but this is in Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Esfehan. The second largest town square in the world (after Moscow's red square) and hosting some of the most splendid Islamic architecture. So a good place to picnic.

A shared table. Soheil and I stopped for coffee and the only place to sit was sharing a table with these young ladies (who spoke excellent English). The one immediately to my right just finishing her architecture MA in Esfehan and looking for a place ideally in the USA to do her PhD. Her friend becoming a teacher of English as a Second Language. You will notice that they manage not to fully comply with the Islamic dress code hereabouts!

From Loristan = spotted these guys because of their rather baggy trousers. Which marks them out as being from Loristan, a mountainous province to the west with grass and waterfalls. The one in the stripy shirt was determined to show me all the hundreds of photos of Loristan on his phone. It did look very attractive. Excuse bad photo - Soheil took it (under very difficult conditions).

Converting the tourists - in one of the courtyards of the Masjid-e Shah in Esfehan square English speaking mullahs engage the tourists in conversation about Islam.

Shopping in the bazaar - there are 8kms of bazaar like this in Esfehan!

Marbles - I know its not real! In a street near the hotel there was a display about children's games with explanations in Farsi and English and some great sculptures. Some of the games I couldn't understand...but everyone knows about marbles.

The Armenian Church..Shah Abbasthe Great, 17th century, imported a whole community of Armenians from northern Iran because of their business skills. They are still here (well their descendants are, obviously) and have a beautifully decorated church - actually more than one. This is one of the members of the church explaining to a group of obviously Muslim ladies what the illustrations are about. There was a great one of the Last Judgement with fire and serpents and monsters.

Soheil as most often seen - he's a keen photographer. I think he probably took more photos than me!

Architecture students - must be a lot of them in Esfehan

...and architecture. A rather chopped off photo of the students drawing and the first entrance to Masjid-e Shah.
 
Giggly girls....who just asked to have their photo taken

A horse and buggy ride, round the Naqsh-e Jahan Square with the Masjid-e Shah in the background.
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