Tehran - the crowded, sprawling, ancient and modern, controversial, alluring, young, diverse, aspiring, hammering, polluted, powerful Persian metropolis by the foot of the Alborz mountains. Some estimate that Tehran could be one of the world's biggest cities by 2050-2060.
	We didn't know to what extent the language would become a problem on this RT. Our contact who helped us with the rental car spoke English but all documentation was in Farsi, so we signed everything in good faith over a cup of tea with the manager. We were then happy to discover that most major road signs were in both Farsi and English.
	The pointy peaks and the dry brown and grey hillsides, with rolling gravel and boulders, reminded us of television images the last few years from the war in Afghanistan. While the traffic in Tehran is crazy there were fewer cars on these mountain roads but with racing speed, takeovers in sharp turns or in the middle of dark tunnels, other drivers indeed did their part to keep things exciting.
	Although probably not very effective at all, in an effort to keep the rural roads calm and orderly there were life-sized board replicas of police cars by the wayside here and there.
	The snow-capped Alborz in April. Some consider a few of the ski resorts here to be among the best in the world, for example Dizin and Shemshak. In valleys between the Alborz peaks are turquoise dams collecting meltwater for renewable hydroelectricity generation.
	On the north side of the range it was downhill on serpentine roads through ravines between tall rock walls in purple and terra cotta, and mossgrown cliffs with waterfalls. The landscape on this side was magnificent on our way northbound toward Chalus by the Caspian Sea.
	At the outskirts of every town in Iran are car repair shops and spare part dealers...
	...but in the beachfront towns along the Caspian Sea are also plenty of crammed shops selling beach balls, flip flops, inflatable toys, towels, lunch baskets and other miscellaneous beach gear.
	As we drove westbound along road 22 with the Caspian to our right and the mountains to our left, it was obvious that there was a building boom here. Modern hotels and luxury apartment blocks were rising at what must have been one of southwest Asia's prime real estate spots. If it wasn't for the financial sanctions against Iran, the property market here would have been an interesting investment opportunity. Aside from oil and caviar, tourism could become a major industry over the coming decades.
	Sea view from the hotel in Ramsar.
	Dinner at a Ramsar restaurant. The menu was in both Farsi and English, various types of kebabs dominated. The staff was very polite and serviceable. Had it not been for the scare-tactics of Western governments about the "Iranian regime", this restaurant could have been packed full with visitors from other countries. But we were the only foreigners.
	Ramsar Hotel by night...
	...and by day. This used to be the palace of the last Iranian monarch before the revolution.
	The fish market in Rasht, capital of the Gilan province in northwestern Iran.
	In a simple eating place in the center of Rasht serving great kebabs, rinsed down with Ashi Mashi soft drinks, while watching the locals and the busy street life outside.
	Olives and pickled garlic sold in dozens of stores along the road 49 thoroughfare in Rudbar.
	More renewable energy. On the windy highland plains we discovered modern wind farms. With a population of 70 million people, a third of whom under 30 years old and therefore a consumer base that could drive significant economic growth over the coming decades, this country needs energy. Economic growth requires energy.
	Pit stop at a Behran Oil station along the way across the high plateau. The gasoline cost 800 rial per liter. We stocked up on staple food and alcohol-free Tuborg beer.
	Reaching Hamedan in the afternoon, one of the oldest cities in the world. On the other side of the Zagros mountain range in the background the war was raging in Iraq.
	Corner shops in town were open late and were well stocked. On the street Bu Ali the electronics stores lay side by side, offering widescreen high-definition TVs, refrigerators with ice machines, computers and more, mostly from Asian and a few European manufacturers.
	Farsi was at the time of our RT06 said to be the second biggest language in the global blogosphere, after English. This is one of Hamedan's Internet cafes. As far as freedom of information went, at a different Internet cafe later on the trip I checked what was accessible online in Iran. Xenophobic and belligerent media such as The Wall Street Journal was readily available, and so were the CIA and White House homepages. Portals for gambling, poker, blackjack, anything, were not blocked. Political discussion forums and controversial blogs from all over the world, no problem to read or write. So the international debate led by loud "experts" on Western television who never have had and never will have the courage to set foot in the country, concerning censorship, propaganda and containment in Iran, suddenly seemed to be slightly missing the mark.
	Old Paykan cars dominate the city streets. Paykans, produced by the Iran Khodro Industrial Group, are both unsafe, inefficient and environmentally devastating. After 38 years production ended in 2005.
	Hijabs come in many styles, colors and designs.
	Men gathered by a newsstand. The (almost ritual) weekly exchange of rhetoric and insults between neoconservatives in Washington and the Iranian president dominated the headlines. Leading up to the time of our RT06, the American Enterprise Institute (a so called "think tank" - i e propaganda establishment - and a strong advocate for US military intervention anywhere in the world) had published articles with titles like "Iran, when?" and "Syria and Iran must get their turn". On 7 March 2006, a month before our visit, the US vice president spoke about "meaningful consequences" for Iran and that US apparently was "keeping all options on the table".
	Monday morning street life in central Hamedan.
	An earthquake in the province of Lorestan less than two weeks before had damaged more than 330 villages; some had been completely flattened. When we passed through the town of Borujerd in northern Lorestan the parks, town squares and streets were lined with tents for homeless earthquake refugees....
	...who were seeking shelter under makeshift tarpaulin covers or in white tents supplied by the Red Crescent.
	Volvo service station on the southwestern Persian plains, just 190 kilometers from the Iraqi border. Safe driving.
	In Esfahan in time for an excellent dinner at the Shahrzad restaurant, with old wooden furniture and ornaments, mosaic and decorations all the way to the ceiling, where the colors sand and turquoise were recurring themes. True Persian specialties like saffron yogurt, goat cheese salad, grilled lamb and rice were on offer.
	"The sum of all vices is constant." In the absence of alcohol, candy and ice cream merchants are doing very well in the country, like this one on the avenue Chahar Bagh late at night.
	At the entrance of the Jamé Mosque in Esfahan. Building started in the year 771, and with numerous additions and renovations over the centuries one guidebook describes the mosque as "a veritable museum of Islamic architecture".
	A group of young local students study the style and design of the chambers and vaults, learn the history from their tutor and make drawings on paper.
	In the courtyard in front of the north iwan...
	...which is said to be a masterpiece of Persian architecture.
	Oriental, meditative, mystifying, unsolvable... The many column halls, the configurations, the symmetric and asymmetrical patterns and inscriptions suggested that there are layers of code in this labyrinth.
	A maintenance worker at the mosque showed us the closed prayer halls.
	The bazaar of Esfahan is one of the oldest and largest bazaars of the Middle East and is filled with scents and murmur.
	Local teenagers in the bazaar.
	Everything for sale, mainly food (grains and seeds, dried fruit, dates), clothing and accessories, carpets. For the first time during RT06 we saw Western tourists.
	Imam Mosque on the south side of the Naghsh-i Jahan Square (also known as Imam Square). Both the mosque and the square are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
	The square is said to be among the biggest in the world, and lined by the most majestic collection of buildings in the Muslim world. This is the Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque on the eastern side.
	Details from the Imam Mosque...
	...with the color-settings, complex arches and calligraphic inscriptions in an impressive near-perfect unity.
	The largest dome in Esfahan is 52 meters high, over the Imam Mosque. One of the artists involved in this undertaking almost 400 years ago is said to have mandated a few tiny errors and irregularities in the decorations, as a sign of human imperfection, inferiority and reverence toward Allah.
	The Chehel Sotoun palace in Esfahan, which we visited. The palace contains many writings, artifacts, frescoes and paintings illustrating battles, royal visits and banquets from the intertwined history between Persian, Turkmen, Uzbek and Mongolian peoples over more than a thousand years.
	The schoolday is over.
	The bridges of Esfahan over the river Zayandeh are grand and spectacular in their own right. Khaju Bridge has 23 arches and is 133 metres long, and links the Khaju quarter on the north bank with the Zoroastrian quarter on the south bank.
	Locals relaxing on the bridge in the shade.
	A foreigner relaxing in the sun, with the Zagros mountains in the background.
	Older men on a bench on the south bank, enjoying the peaceful, quiet and warm spring afternoon in April 2006. Perhaps they are lucky survivors of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). The history of Persia - anchient and modern - is so rich, intense and powerful it is almost impossible for an outsider to comprehend. With 70 million people, a third of whom under 30 years old, and a strategic location between an ever-expanding Europe (if Turkey becomes a member of the EU, Iran will border to the EU), Russia, China and India, one gets the impression that the population of the country now wants to look forward, not backward.
	Families picnicing by the river, a group of teenagers drinking (alcohol-free) beer, eating snacks and playing the guitar.
	Si-o-Seh Pol with its famous tea house at night. The bridge is almost 300 meters long and very beautiful.
	One thousand and one nights... Searching for Scheherazade.
	Esfahan, the jewel of old Persia, has the potential to become a tourist destination on par with Athens or Rome. What is holding the city and the rest of Persia back in this and other regards is, more than anything, unawareness and unfounded prejudice.
	An unexpected sighting in the city traffic when leaving town the following morning.
	It would have been interesting to see Shiraz, 2-3 hours' drive straight ahead, where the process of winemaking possibly originated 7,000 years ago. But we turned east toward Yazd.
	By accident we came across this pipeline being built from the oil and gas fields in the south of the country (Iran holds the world's biggest reserves of natural gas) right through the desert, direction northeast... China? Geopolitical chess at work. We were probably not supposed to take this picture.
	In the footsteps of Marco Polo through a biblical landscape on four wheels.
	Marco Polo visited Yazd in 1272 and remarked on the town's fine silk weaving industry. A little more than seven centuries later we checked in at the Silk Road Hotel, dominated by mature backpackers and stray vagabonds. While the front exterior didn't exactly overpromise anything...
	...the inside courtyard is a hidden neat oasis of furniture and vegetation, food and qalyans, people and music.
	Yazd, still famous for silk-weaving and carpets, is one of the largest cities built almost entirely out of adobe.
	The previously largest adobe structure was the citadel of the Iranian city of Bam further to the east, which was destroyed in the earthquake on 26 December 2003, killing tens of thousands of people.
	Through a maze of narrow alleyways and dimly lit tunnels in the city's bazaar area we eventually found what was said to be one of best restaurants in town...
	...namely the old atmospheric Malek-o Tojjar. A couple of busloads of European and Japanese tourists (the latter herd as frantic as ever with their cameras) had also found the place, which reduced the novelty somewhat.
	Takyeh Amir Chakhmagh.
	Mother and child in a doorway in Yazd.
	Heading north again on road 71, watching out for Joe Camel. A US law passed in 2000 allows exports of medicine and agricultural goods to Iran. Considered a premier market for cigarettes, US tobacco exports to Iran was estimated to be worth around $140 billion per year by the time of RT06, dwarfing all other US exports to Iran combined.
	When passing the outskirts of Natanz there was heavy military presence, check points and vehicle searches, especially for cargo entering the diversion that could possibly lead to industrial areas near Natanz. Natanz was said to be the center of Iran's controversial uranium enrichment program. Assorted US government figures, senators, neoconservative lobbyists and presidential candidates had been bidding over each other for weeks about how to "take care of" or "sort out" Natanz, as it is eloquently and delicately phrased in American public debate when finding the facts first poses too much of an effort, through airstrikes.
	Guided rooftop promenade in the old city of Kashan at sunset on Thursday evening...
	...peeking down on the bazaar merchants below...
	...where people in high spirits were forming lines outside the sweet shops.
	Youngsters checking out the latest mobile phones in a street window.
	We arrived in Qom in time for the Friday prayers on 14 April 2006. Qom is a holy city for Shia Islam and the largest center for Shia scholarship in the world.
	Pilgrims from all over the country and the world come to Qom.
	The faithful were flocking to the tall gates of the Hazrat-e Masuma shrine.
	Observing it all from a near distance, with beers (alocohol-free) on the hotel roof terrace.
	Congestion in the center of town as tens of thousands were coming and going.
	The Friday mosque visits, prayers, rituals and celebrations continued in the evening and into the night...
	...with the shrine beautifully illuminated.
	After a week on the road, through deserts and sand storms, the car needed a wash.
	Cruising up the Persian Gulf Highway back to Tehran.
	A cosmopolitan city, and relatively liberal by Iranian standards. On 18 September 2001, Tehran saw the largest vigil in the Muslim world to honor the victims of the terror attacks in US a week before. Thousands of people gathered on the streets, lit candles and prayed. Tehran's main soccer stadium observed an unprecedented minute of silence in sympathy with the victims.
	But the old scars of the revolution in 1978-1979, which turned the country from a US-supported monarchy into an Islamic republic, are still visible. The exterior walls of the former US embassy are vandalized with what amounts to nothing more than cheap slogans and graffiti tags.
	The wider population in Tehran don't appear to take the messages too seriously - especially not the younger generation - but the authorities let the confrontational graffiti on the embassy remain.
	More of the same.
	We managed to get inside the historic embassy compound, the place where it all happened, and took this picture before being shown the way out by a policeman.
	Large-scale propaganda on the wall of a nearby building, again quite unnecessary.
	But there is more to northern Tehran than just a contentious embassy. This part of the city has many banks and modern offices, and streets offering expensive shopping.
	No visit to Persia is complete without an old Paykan taxi ride, an experience in itself. Fingers crossed that it wouldn't break at the next red light, but carry us all the way...
	...to the Azadi Tower ("Freedom Tower" in English), which marks the entrance from the west to Tehran. It was built in 1971 in commemoration of the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire.
	Stroll in the lush campus of the Tehran University, the oldest and largest university of Iran with almost 30,000 undergraduate students.
	We met a couple of students who were very curious and eager to know our impressions of Persia, and opinions among common people in the West on various matters including politics. They nodded carefully when we explained.
	Tehran is one of the world's most polluted cities. This digital billboard by Ferdowsi Square displays the concentration in the air of different pollutants. Despite having an extremely long way to go, if the current trends can ever be turned around, at least there are signs like these of growing awareness.
	Finally before leaving Iran, a visit to the Sarkis Cathedral in northern Tehran, where a Christian community was gathering for Easter Sunday mass.