Original subtitles

I can't tell you how exciting it is to be here.

I'm in Tehran, the capital of Iran.

Do you know, up to ten days ago,

we didn't know if we'd ever be able to come to this fabulous country,

and then, suddenly, our visas came through,

and I'm here now.

And so are you.

Iran is pivotal to the Silk Road and our great journey.

All the ideas, all the cultural exchanges,

all the philosophy, all the poetry

came from this country when it was Persia.

So far on my travels along this ancient trade route,

we've seen the glorious silk

that made Venice the richest city in Europe.

Gee, whizz. Respect.

We've trekked through Georgia's breathtaking Caucasus mountains.

Wow!

And wondered at the glittering towers of modern Azerbaijan.

It's magic.

Now, at last, in incredible Iran,

we'll be exploring the ancient wonders of Persepolis.

I mean, the scale of it,

it's amazing.

I'll find a surprisingly familiar twist to the silk trade.

Christian Lacroix. Lacroix, sweetie, Lacroix.

And in an enchanting city, there are night-time celebrations.

A really special occasion. I've gate-crashed it.

Thank goodness I dressed up.

Join me on my Silk Road Adventure!

Persia, as Iran used to be called,

was famed for its wealth and sophistication

and was the beating heart of the Silk Road.

Starting from its capital, Tehran,

we'll cross deserts and visit oases

to the ancient glorious city of Persepolis.

Iran is very much off the typical tourist trail.

This once centre of the known world

feels almost like a hidden state.

When I was growing up,

Iran was epitomised by the Shah and his immense wealth

built largely from the Iranian oil reserves.

CHEERING

In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution

swept into power.

Iran increasingly became isolated from the West

and was later branded by George Bush as part of the "axis of evil"

and continues to be viewed by some in the West as a pariah state

with nuclear ambitions.

I've always wanted to visit Iran

and go behind the politics

and see the country and the people who live there.

If you come here, though, you have to conform.

Modest dress and headscarves are enforced by law in Iran

and visiting foreigners are no exception.

Staying both stylish and within the law

is no mean feat

so I've asked Reihane Taravati to help me out with a spot of shopping.

Where are we going now?

We are going to Melal Mall,

a very new shopping centre,

which is very much trendy.

This is so far from the Tehran I'd imagined.

EXHALES HEAVILY This is fantastic.

Facebook and Twitter are banned in Iran,

but Instagram is not.

Last year alone, 23 million Iranians

opened a social media account for the first time.

And Reihane is one of the country's top social media influencers.

So what social media has done

is linked Iran and the young people of Iran with the world.

I follow Vogue. Yes.

I follow Time magazine, is my favourite.

Do you? Yeah. I read Elle.

Marie Claire.

Wow.

Yeah, no... We never think...

Look, scarves! This is what I'm looking for.

Reihane and I were just getting to some important issues,

but I've been distracted by some shiny, silky things.

Salam. Salam. Come in.

I'd like to get something that I could wear with this.

I love good colours. Look at this colour. Something smaller,

like yours, that I could twist around my head.

That would go with anything. Would that look good with this?

Will you help me? Oh, darling, you're just the person I want.

You like the fabric?I think it's lovely. It's lovely and light.

I'm pretty much adoring that.

I'd like to get the viewers' votes at home on this.

If I was on Instagram, people would tell me at once, wouldn't they?

So now, let's have a look at it.

Christian Lacroix. Lacroix, sweetie, Lacroix.

So there we are.

I've a feeling it's a king's ransom.

Do I care? Not a jot.

See, this is gorgeous, isn't it?

Where shall we go now?

This shopping trip is changing all my preconceptions.

You see, the thing is, Reihane, we in the West,

most of the stuff we hear from the Middle East

and Central Asia are war stories and horrible stories.

I know. And we never see the beauty.

That's why I actually like the social media a lot

because, you know, you can see the real people of Iran.

Their homes, their stories.

And it's kind of more true...

Yes, it is. I get that feeling.

And you get the absolute feeling

that you are looking out to the world

and the world can look back in to you. Yeah.

Tehran is also famous

for having some of the worst traffic jams in the world.

Which doesn't help when you have to cross town

to meet one of the country's biggest movie stars,

Bahram Radan.

He's known as Iran's Brad Pitt

and he's currently filming a taekwondo action movie.

Bahram. Hi.Good to meet you. Nice to meet you.

How lovely to meet you.

Thank you so much. Welcome to Iran.

Well, I... Thank you for letting us come to watch this.

This is a rehearsal?

Yes, this is the rehearsal day.

Bahram, is cinema very popular here in Iran? Yeah.Yes.

It is, it is, it is.

And you make how many films a year?

More than 150, I guess. EXHALES HEAVILY

Yeah, yeah.It's huge. It's huge.

It's a huge industry, actually. Yes.

That's far more than we make in Britain.

And what are the chances of

me coming to work in Iran in the film industry?

You wanna learn Farsi? Yeah.

Definitely. Let's do that.

Or maybe I can play a foreigner. Oh, yeah.

A hated foreigner. I would be a beastly woman

from overseas who couldn't speak Farsi.

We should give it a try. Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful?

Yeah, I think so.

But an added complication to acting in Iran

that I hadn't considered are the restrictions between sexes.

You know, we have so many boundaries.

We have so many limitations.

How when I cannot touch any woman.

if I wanna hug my, my, my mother in the movie, I can't.

You can't? I can't.

So me and the director, and all these other staff...

You have to work out a way...

You have to work on how we can deliver our messages

with all those limitations, you know?

So that's a little bit hard.

But at the same time, I'm so happy that I'm working with

a very, very talented group of people...

Yes. ..that can, with all these limitations,

they can do masterpieces. Yes.

I hope it'll change soon for you.

LAUGHS I'm sure it will.

It's been a privilege. Thank you, Bahram. Thank you.Thank you.

If I had a bit of paper, I'd ask for your autograph.

Oh!

I have sampled modern Tehran but, before I leave the capital,

I want to glimpse the splendour of its magnificent imperial past.

This is Golestan Palace,

the former home of the Shahs of Iran,

and still an ornate reminder of the wealth and excesses

of the old monarchy.

EXHALES HEAVILY

It's like being in a jewel box.

And this is the huge yellow marble throne.

And these huge awnings would be rolled up

and then, sitting here, the Shah would see all the people

who'd come to have an audience.

It's sensational.

GASPS Oh, look. Come, come, come, come.

Paintings of the Shahs with their great jewelled crowns

and carrying weapons.

Naser al-Din made the biggest changes to the palace

in the 19th century.

Known for his over-the-top lifestyle,

he was a fan of all things European

and took design inspiration from the Palace of Versailles.

Every part of every single surface decorated.

And when you look up there,

it's like looking at a heavenly piece of jewellery.

The fineness of the glasswork.

I'm so pleased I've seen this.

I wouldn't have believed it. You can't get it from photographs.

The temperature is soaring,

but the Silk Road is beckoning me south,

where it's in the 40s.

Most tourists overlook the small city of Kashan,

but it's got several jewels

that I'm hoping are worth the long, thirsty drive.

With me is Mahnaz Mohammadi,

a film-maker from Tehran,

who's guiding me through this scorching, arid landscape.

I'm looking on each side. It's so bleak.

We've got a few mountains, but it's...

A little bit of grass growing. Yeah.

But we've seen some deserts, haven't we?

Yeah. Deserts everywhere.

To survive the desert

and take their silks and carpets out beyond Persia,

traders followed ancient camel routes

from watering hole to watering hole.

Do you want some of your lovely aloe vera? Thank you so much.

What have I got? Mogu Mogu. Pink guava-flavoured drink.

"Gotta chew," it says. "Gotta chew." What does that mean?

This, incidentally, "gotta chew",

means it's got lumps of stuff in it. Mm.

It might be guava, it might not be.

It says with coconut in it so I've got little blobs of coconut.

Very nice.

Over time, these little oases grew into major trading posts.

One of the most important was here in Kashan.

Today it's a small city of 300,000

and only gets a handful of foreign visitors a year.

Yet, prized Persian carpets are still handmade here,

but you do need to know where to look for them.

Mariyam Khavaki comes from a long line of Kashan carpet weavers.

Look at this work.

This seems like alchemy to me,

to see what seem to be completely random threads.

Mariyam, how old were you

when you started to learn how to weave carpets?

And so generation after generation.

Great-grandmothers teaching daughters, down, down, down.

Now we get Mariyam.

And so her hands, these little hands, are very skilled.

With the stiffness, I couldn't see, but now it comes round one,

round the other, back there, pulled down, cut.

Yes.

But then all the time following this pattern.

It's quite phenomenal and it's growing in front of our eyes.

How long has it taken you, Mariyam, to make this much carpet here?

20 days.20 days? Yes.

Long day, long day. Thank you.

And what about the birds? Do they keep you company?

When we go to a shop and buy a Persian carpet,

I had no idea that someone like Mariyam has sat here and made it

day after day. I'm going, "Mm, I love that one."

And all these hours of toil.

Women around the world making things of such beauty.

Look. I wish this carpet were finished now, I'd buy it from you.

You are wonderful.

You're brilliant.

When Marco Polo visited here 800 years ago,

he was told that the Three Wise Men who followed the star

came from Kashan.

And it's a story that's still around today.

On the outskirts of Kashan

lies one of Iran's oldest and greatest treasures.

This is the Fin Garden.

It's "chahar bagh" because it's laid out

in the traditional style of four gardens

divided by running waterways,

shaded by tall, cool trees like this.

Absolutely peaceful.

It's the oldest Persian garden still in existence.

Built in 1590 and following the tradition of the Paradise Garden.

At the very heart is a spring that rises up in the central pool,

before cascading out into all four corners.

Paradise sort of means the walled garden.

And here, we're looking at hedges and trees,

which are quite normal for us in the UK.

But just beyond there,

it's a raging desert.

It's flat, it's baking hot.

Can you imagine in the old days,

to come inside and to hear running water,

and to have shadow and shade,

and order laid out in front of you?

In a suitably cool corner of the garden, I meet Mr Aminian,

who has spent his career protecting this jewel of Kashan.

Mr Aminian, this looks so inviting.

Can we take our shoes and socks off and put our feet in the water?

I'm going to get some miraculous water on my feet.

Mr Aminian, do you have a garden of your own?

Who was it who thought of this idea?

Thank you. Merci. Thank you so much.

This idea was revolutionary.

It actually hadn't happened anywhere in the world.

And this idea went across to China

for irrigation, for watering plants and things.

But once this idea caught fire and the world had seen it,

like with so many other things,

Persia was leading the way.

Dragging myself away from

the peace and tranquillity of the Paradise Garden...

..next is the former dazzling capital of ancient Persia,

Isfahan.

Isfahan is the real crossroads of the Silk Road

and was a pivotal point in the Persian Empire.

It's where the old trade route from north to south

joins the one from east to west.

And the jewel in the crown of Isfahan is Naqsh-e Jahan Square.

Oh, well!

It's colossal.

Three times the size of St Mark's in Venice,

it's the largest enclosed square in the world.

It was built by Shah Abbas I in the 16th century,

who's said to be as cruel as Ivan the Terrible,

and as canny as Elizabeth I.

Look at this. I'm on this great, great terrace,

the King's Palace, Ali Qapu,

looking over the phenomenal square.

What is this vast space?

Is it just a garden or a park? Well, it is now.

But in the old days, it was a polo ground

and the King would come out and watch his favourite polo players,

his favourite horses, perhaps.

And of course, he was in an ideal position,

got about 3km of shopping wrapped all around here,

and he's got a personal little mosque there over there.

Absolutely sumptuous.

I think some of you are anxious about what I'm wearing on my head.

Now, look, this is the problem,

one of the crew said that I reminded him of Hilda Ogden.

So today I'm rocking the Florida golf widow look.

I hope you like it. It may change again.

This, I feel, is the nearest I've got to

what I feel the Silk Road would have been like 400 or 500 years ago.

You would have seen silk merchants from China,

spice traders from India,

Persian carpets, and silver jewellery.

Can't be drinking tea in our carpet shop.

English people likes tea very much. We like tea and we like carpets.

We like tea and carpets.

And this looks like silk. Is this silk?

Yeah, this one is 100% silk. It's a hunting design.

It's one of the oldest patterns.

Isn't that gorgeous?

This, also, is a way to park your bike. I love it.

Just leave it there so people can see it.

There will be no stumbling on the bike.

Leave it there,

in the middle of the road.

MAN PLAYS FLUTE

400 years ago, Isfahan was one of the largest cities in the world.

Bigger than London and more cosmopolitan than Paris.

This is good price. May I see?

Yes.

TAPPING OF METAL I can hear lovely tapping sounds.

This is what I love - the sound of metal workers.

It means there's an artisan at work.

So when he's finished chipping with his sharpened chisel,

when he's finished cutting it out, this outside bit will lift off,

and set it against black velvet.

Look how fine it is.

So this is a gorgeous picture of two, I think, mythical birds.

Seems to have a great Chinese influence

and I wonder if these ideas of art

were flowing to and from the Silk Road for centuries.

And somebody seeing it and going, "Mm, I pretty much like that.

"I could do that in my own workshop."

And this is how ideas gradually work their way back.

The power hungry Shah Abbas

had a cunning reason for building the market right next to his palace.

It helped him to control trade.

And he didn't stop there.

Oh, look.

This is the great mosque at the end.

He also wanted to control the power of the clergy.

So at one end of his giant square, he built a huge public mosque

and called it the Royal Mosque.

Because it's being restored,

we've been asked not to take our shoes off.

EXHALES HEAVILY

Look at this...

..staggering great dome.

The magnificent 53 metre-high dome

was cleverly designed so that

the voice of someone speaking from directly below its centre

is echoed around the huge interior.

And here's the famous mark of the centre,

which means that it's right underneath the middle of the dome.

And I think that if I clapped here...

CLAPS AND CLAP ECHOES

Can you hear that? CLAP ECHOES

That's what I call a ricochet.

CLAP ECHOES

SINGING COMES FROM THE MOSQUE

Our visit to Iran coincided with the month of Ramadan,

when Muslims fast during daylight hours.

We were told that the Great Square

would really come to life in the evening.

And I just couldn't resist another visit to the Aladdin's cave

that is the great bazaar.

Oh, look, look, look.

How beautiful. It's full of carpets. This is divine. Here you are.

Can we come in? Thank you. GASPS

How wonderful.

What a collection you have here.

We have around 2,700 years' history for Persian carpet.

Well... Yes.

And all have a meaning.

Ali Bordbar has travelled extensively,

spending time with nomads.

This carpet is from Baluch, another tribe of nomads.

Southeast part of Iran.

He learnt that every carpet tells a different story.

This type of chicken,

this is a symbol of richness in Persian carpet.Is it? Yes.

This is symbol of ice. That shows the nomad hospitality.

How lovely. Thank you.

Each carpet, it turns out,

is rich with the meaning of the life of the person who made it.

This is the mother and son paisley.

So little one inside the bigger paisley. Yes.

Same as the pregnant. And the life start.

I had no idea that there were so many different kinds of carpets.

You think of Persian carpet, "I'd love a Persian carpet."

Now you see there's an absolute plethora of different ones,

nomadic ones, kilims, city carpets.

Beautiful. Thank you.

Thank you so much. You're welcome. You're welcome.

It's been such a revelation talking to you.

Our pleasure.

SINGING COMING FROM THE MOSQUE

How lovely this looks in the evening.

Look at this place.

During Ramadan, called Ramazan here,

the sound of evening prayers signals the end of the fast for the day.

And this prayer? Azan.Azan.

After that, they will start to pray.

And break the fast. Yeah.

Yes, look, here are people here, sitting down,

breaking up, eating something. CHATTER

Look at that little gang of chattering, chattering children.

I think they're asking us to join them.

Salam. Hello.

And it would be rude not to.

They've all got a little small dish of food,

they haven't started yet,

in front of them. And they'll be given a sign... a sign,

I think, that they can start eating.

SINGING AND CLAPPING

My name is Joanna. Joanna.

It's rice, and sort of saffron rice,

pickled cabbage,

some oniony bits.

It turned out that this was a special evening

for these young lads.

They were leaving their local primary school.

Isn't that lovely? This is graduation.

But it's special. It's not an everyday occurrence.

Iftarin the evening of Ramazan,

it's a really special occasion. I've gate-crashed it.

Thank goodness I dressed up.

Reza Ghasemi, one of the teachers from Nategh Elementary School,

has helped to organise the picnic.

Is tonight a big celebration?

The palatial buildings and gigantic square here

were so impressive

that residents boasted that "Isfahan is half the world".

But it's time to leave

and follow in Marco Polo's footsteps even deeper into the desert,

to an ancient place,

where a sacred fire, thousands of years old, is still alight.

When the great explorer Marco Polo travelled through Persia in 1292,

he wrote of a remote, good, and noble city,

where they made a much sought-after type of silk known as Yazdi.

The city he was describing is Yazd.

Lying on the border of Iran's two largest deserts,

it's one of the oldest cities on Earth.

And its history helps explain how the Silk Road allowed merchants

to export not just valuable goods, but also precious ideas.

Well, this is the old part of the city of Yazd,

which is bang in the middle of the desert.

It's the most remote city I think I've ever been to in my life.

Marco Polo came here about 800 years ago

and he said, if you rode in any direction for seven days,

you'd be lucky to get three little sips of water.

It's so remote.

The house-builders in Yazd also invented a revolutionary technology,

an ingenious idea that was carried along the Silk Road

to countries right across the Middle East and North Africa.

The world's first air conditioning system.

And these fine, beautiful, strange, upright, box-looking things

are wind chimneys.

They draw the air in, even when it's been 42C outside,

which it has been today

and is pretty much now, and it's hot.

They cool the air as it comes down

and so inside these little hot mud huts,

it's much cooler.

Yazd is regarded as the most beautiful desert city in the world.

And despite its historic appearance,

has a young, beating heart.

This is what we know as charades,

and I think they call it pantomime here.

Welcome to Iran. Thank you. We love Iran.

My friends.

Yes. University and from school.

University? Yes.

University of Yazd.

I wish I could join in. I kind of love this game.

LAUGHTER

I don't know what the titles are that they're doing.

This lovely girl is going to do it now.

Ooh, that's hard. What's it going to be, baby?

Delve deeper into the old town of Yazd

and you'll find echoes of a time

when a man couldn't even open the door to a woman.

Oh, look. I've heard of these door knockers. Look.

This is the man's door knocker,

straight like that, well, rather sort of graphic like that.

And this is the woman's door knocker. Look.

So that when you're listening...

RAPS THE KNOCKER

That's women. So you know that's a woman outside.

In this case, me. And this is men.

RAPS KNOCKER THAT EMITS A LOWER TONE

Isn't that clever?

Makes me think how slow we are at home

because we just go bing-bong, and you've no idea.

It could be the Avon lady. I'm not advertising.

It could just be the milkman...

MUSIC: 'A Kind Of Magic' by Queen

It turns out that Yazd has a surprising link

to a legendary British rock star.

Freddie Mercury was raised as a Zoroastrian,

a religion that originated in Persia 3,500 years ago.

In this rather unprepossessing street

sits one of the most important temples to Zoroastrianism,

one of the oldest religions in the world.

It spread from here with the Silk Road traders,

who moved gradually eastwards to Central Asia, China and India,

where Freddie's parents were born.

Fire is sacred to Zoroastrians,

both as a means of purification

and a symbol of their lord of wisdom, Ahura Mazda.

This is the Temple of Fire in Yazd.

So small, so elegant.

There's a great symbol of Zoroastrianism above the door.

Huge spread wings, an aged man with a great big beard

holding one hand up and a ring in the other.

Here's this gorgeous symbol telling me what it is.

That hand reaching upwards to God, and this hand holding a ring,

symbolising that you must keep your promises.

And we have that today in our wedding rings.

We have that on our left finger.

This is the bit that I absolutely adore.

It says, respect your elders.

This is a special message for teenagers who are watching this.

Look to middle aged-people, or even old people,

or even quite wrinkly people

because they know it all.

They've done it all. They have experience.

I mean, I know all this because I can obviously read fluent...

I just knew it. I found I could... Almost like speaking in tongues.

Zoroastrians took refuge here in this desert city

after the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century

and brought with them their most treasured possession.

And so here it is, the sacred fire.

This particular piece of fire

was taken from an original piece of fire

and this has been burning for 1,400 years.

It's absolutely extraordinary,

to have come from the complexity of the great mosques

with all their splendour,

to see this simple, bare, little room.

Zoroaster, the great priest,

who's name is also Zarathustra.

Also Sprach Zarathustra. You know that famous piece which is played...

MUSIC: 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' by Richard Strauss

Da, da, da, ba-da! Richard Strauss.

Play it now.

That's it. That's Zarathustra.

Fire influenced every aspect of Zoroastrian life and death.

These are ancient hilltop burial grounds.

Known as the Towers of Silence,

they're an eerie tradition of Zoroastrianism,

the religion of Persia for 1,000 years before Islam.

Because Zoroastrians believed that fire was sacred,

they wouldn't contaminate the fire with a dead body,

so they're laid to rest up here. Birds of the air come and eat them.

Sky burial - being eaten by the birds.

We're over halfway through our journey through Iran

and I can't tell you how pleased I am that I came here.

I have to say, I did have doubts about it.

The difficulty with filming and communicating with people.

And that perhaps we'd have been watched

or judged in everything we did.

I could not have been more wrong.

It's been completely extraordinary.

Fantastically welcoming.

So kind and so friendly.

It's just been a revelation.

And another revelation is the food.

I was anxious. Gosh, will it all be kind of stewed goat?

And I'm a vegetarian.

Well, here I've eaten the best vegetarian food in the world.

And tonight, this is actually vegan.

It's stewed vegetables and...

Mmm. Absolutely delicious.

We'll just have to take a little piece of bread as well.

I don't usually eat the bread. You can tell. I'm slender.

But now and then... Irresistible.

The final leg of my journey

is taking me somewhere I've always longed to visit.

These are the colossal walls of Persepolis,

one of the legendary cities of the ancient world.

We're on the last leg of the Silk Road in Iran,

and it's taking us right down to the southwest of the country

to Shiraz.

So Shiraz.

Oh, dream, dream, dreaming of going to Shiraz!

Yeah.

Shiraz people... Are they?

Here they're relaxing, further south,

relaxing in the heat with the flowers

and nightingales, a glass of wine, poetry.

Why would they work?

I quite understand.

How lovely. Yeah.

This is the Qur'an Gate, the entrance to Shiraz.

The tradition is that, when you're going on a journey,

somebody holds a copy of the holy book, the Qur'an, over your head.

You pass under it and that brings you safe blessings for your journey.

I haven't got a copy of the Qur'an with me,

but I've got the sun above to give me blessings.

Shiraz was an important stop

for the caravan routes that ran down to the Persian Gulf.

It's the capital of Fars Province,

from where the official language of Iran, Farsi,

takes its name.

And I've got a very personal reason for coming here.

I'm so thrilled to be in Shiraz

because my mother was nearly born here.

My grandfather was a young consul at the time

and one of his postings was here, to Persia,

and he was down in Shiraz.

The dynasty he served under, the Qajar dynasty,

gave him the Star of Persia.

You can see how beautiful it is. That was the piece

that would have been worn on a ribbon around your neck.

And this would have been worn on your sash of office

going across your chest.

My grandmother, having left Persia,

said that, of all the countries in the world

she wished to return to and would love to live in, was Persia.

I can just picture a pretty nice day for my grandmother here.

Painting in the morning in that glorious garden,

and then a spot of lunch.

I'm going to go to a gorgeous little restaurant.

A Shirazi restaurant with perfect food.

I think that must be it. Parhami.

It's got a beautiful knocker on the door.

Salam. Hello. Salam. You're very welcome.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Shiraz wine did originally come from Shiraz.

But alcohol was banned after the 1979 revolution.

Today in Iran, you don't get a wine list, you get a rose water list.

We have three main rosewaters.

How... Yes.

Rose water with some herb seeds,

lemon juice with rose water,

and another rose water that they don't know the name of the flower.

CHUCKLES May I have the very first one?

Rose water with some seeds in it? OK.I'd love that.

Yes, of course. Five minutes. Thank you.

Well, how gorgeous is this?

Beautiful little courtyard.

And they're keeping the watermelons in the water of the fountain.

GASPS

Here you are. Oh, look at...

Your rose water with some seeds. Our traditional dessert.

I've got to try this first.

That is exquisite.

It tastes of roses and syrup.

These wonderful seeds.

Because Iran is a dry country,

they take such a lot of care in preparing drinks that are delicious

so you don't miss the great famous Shiraz wines of yesteryear.

And that, dear viewer, is one that,

in my opinion, you should definitely try at home.

Iranians adore poetry

and often say that Farsi is its natural language.

In Shiraz, people flock to visit

the tomb of their country's most revered poet Hafez.

Abbas? Hi.Hi.

I'm Joanna. Nice to see you. How very nice to meet you.

This is good of you. Thank you so much.

No problem, no problem.

University student Abbas is my new best friend.

Abbas, you sound as though you've studied in America.

Er... actually, I didn't. It's mostly movies.

You've done all this from here? Yes.

But you're very fluent.

You sound like Woody Allen.

That's really kind of you. He has a thick New York accent,

which I don't have. No, you don't have.

In a centuries-old tradition called Fal'e Hafez,

people randomly open a page of the great man's book

and look for inspiration and personal guidance in that poem.

Look how beautiful that is.

Salam. Stay, stay, stay, stay, stay.

Is this the first time that you've come here, to the tomb?

Did the poem that you've found today

resolve the problem that you came with?

And what about you? Is it good news for you?

Well, it was our good fortune to meet you here.

Merci. Adieu.

Salam.

Hello. I'm Joanna. How nice to meet you.

Will you tell me what it is about Hafez the poet

that makes his work so enduring over the centuries?

How wonderful. Do you have a favourite one?

APPLAUSE Bravo. Bravo.

Merci, merci. That was beautiful.

With the best memories. Thank you.

How lovely.

So, here's my lovely copy of Hafez.

Yes.How do I do the Fal'e? How do I do it?

You just put your nails, and you just randomly pick a page,

and just open it. There. Good job.

Oh, it's wonderful. He's such a wonderful poet, isn't he?

Can you read the Persian to me?

Throw me into the ship of wine,

oh, wine bearer,

that... LAUGHTER

I've gone straight for the alcoholic rendition.

What's happening?

It is said help the poor and if, by any chance, you become poor,

God will help you. It will come back?

Somebody will give it to you? Yes, something will come back to you.

Oh, that's very good news. Yes, it is.

Tell me, how many films did you have to watch

to get this perfect English?

LAUGHS Go on, tell me.

Um... It's been 12 years.

On average, every two days, one movie.

Every two days? Every two days. Yeah.

You've seen all of... You've seen

the whole of American cinema, haven't you?

LAUGHS The most famous ones, I suppose.

You've been so kind, Abbas. Thank you very much indeed.

The privilege is all mine.

Our final stop in Iran lies just 60km from Shiraz.

These are the colossal walls of Persepolis.

One of the mightiest cities,

the legendary cities of the ancient world.

I'm seeing it for the first time.

My heart is beating so hard.

So this is how they would have come up to this palace,

wondering what they were going to see.

I'm wondering what I'm going to see.

GASPS Look at this avenue.

Huge avenue coming across the plain.

And it would have led you right up, all the way up to...

GASPS

Oh, my gosh.

Persepolis was founded by Darius the Great in 518BC,

when Iron Age Britons were still living in wooden hill forts.

It was designed only for pomp and pageantry

and became the ceremonial capital f the Persian Empire,

a beacon of extravagance.

What it must have been like to come to see this palace.

I mean, the scale of it.

It's... It's amazing.

Persepolis quite soon became the envied city in the entire world.

"Is it not passing brave

"to be a king and ride in triumph through Persepolis?"

Those lines were written by Christopher Marlowe

in the play Tamburlaine the Great.

And on stage in London, if you're in a classical play,

and you dry, you forget your words, you just say that

and the audience will never know that it's just been dropped in.

It gives you time to think of your next line.

"Is it not passing brave

"to be a king and ride in triumph through Persepolis?"

With the city in its prime,

the Persian Empire ruled over 44% of the world's population.

A greater percentage than any other empire in history.

So, this is a depiction on the wall

of all the different parts of the empire,

the great Persian Empire,

bringing tribute to the king of the time.

So, this would be a mead with his round hat,

this would be a Persian with his tall hat, holding hands.

This group comes from India. And you can see he's wearing a sari.

GASPS This lot come from Samarkand.

I'm going to Samarkand next.

Another of the exotic and fabulous places in the world

which was on the Silk Road.

This was people coming from all over the place,

bringing trade, and bringing it through Iran,

and through separate... These are Greeks.

And they've got honeycomb, some folded cloth,

cups of some sweet nectar,

possibly retsina.

And they're all going upstairs and they're all bringing their gifts

to the king of kings,

the Shahanshah.

But sadly, all this celebration and pageantry

was not to last.

Less than 200 years later

Alexander the Great sacked and looted Persepolis.

It took 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels

to take away all his spoils,

leaving it more or less in the state we see today.

Oh, gosh.

I wish I could see what it was like.

Well, I can.

Oh, my heavens.

Massive black pillars.

Great beautiful patterned ceiling.

With horses' heads up here.

Great stark decorations, but so effective.

Oh. And there's the gateway I walked through.

Oh, this is marvellous.

Oh, I could stand here all day in the midday sun...

..just staring at this glory.

The Iranian State has its problems

and it's not an obvious tourist destination for us in the West.

And yet, the ordinary and extraordinary people I've met

have been welcoming, warm, and generous.

I met an Iranian man here just today with his family.

And they sent welcoming signs to me

and he just said, "Governments, pfft."

That's exactly what I feel.

And now for lust of knowing what should not be known,

I take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

Next time, in Uzbekistan...

Look at this dress.

Isn't it fabulous?

..I'm off to a wedding.

Do you know, it doesn't matter what you put on,

you look dowdy compared with everybody here.

In Kyrgyzstan, I experience the modern with K-Pop...

..and the ancient art of eagle hunting.

Wow, what a view!

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