Messages..

At its peak, the ancient city of Persepolis was the centre of an empire that stretched from India, through Europe as far as the Danube, and into Ethiopia. But it fell into a slow decline after losing to the Greeks at Marathon, and Persepolis was eventually sacked by Alexander the Great.

During its rise, each new king built a new palace for himself next to his predecessor's. But there is a mystery monument/palace in the middle of the complex that somehow never got finished even as the the city continued to grow. My guide said no one is sure why.

I have a theory. Just outside Persepolis are the remains of a tent city the Shah built in the 1970s for a lavish ceremony celebrating the 2500th anniversary of the Persian empire. Foreign dignitaries were put up in the luxury tents, some of which apparently had marble bathrooms. But few Iranians were invited and the whole expense turned into a domestic P.R. headache for the Shah.

My guide told me the Islamist government burned the tents after the revolution but it left the metal supports standing. There's a metal fence surrounding them that probably cost as much to put up as tearing the the tent supports down would. It's as if this government left them there so people wouldn't forget the failures of the previous one. I'm guessing that's what the unfinished monument at Persepolis was meant for, too.

The good news is that I got my visa extension while I was in southern Iran and I'll begin riding towards Turkey on Friday. I confess I'd been fretting a lot about the start of bicycling here. But I met two cycle travellers here yesterday who've come from the other way, so I'm feeling more confident.