Prepare to be surprised. This huge country, three times the size of France
and with a population of 70 million, contains a bewildering array of world-class sights, lasting testament to a tumultuous 5,000-year history that has left an indelible mark on both East and West.

Kipling said the "twain" would never meet, though he perhaps hadn't visited Iran. The country’s constellation of sights are without equal in the Islamic world. The brightest star of all is, of course, Esfahan, that eternally evocative name, recalling the most sublime architectural and intellectual achievements of Persian culture. Together with Shiraz and nearby Persepolis, this triumvirate forms the core of any journey to Iran. There is a parallel Iran to the one that most visitors see.

In the northwest the city of Tabriz has been famous for the manufacture of carpets for a thousand years. In the far south are the ancient remains of the Elamite civilisation at Choqa Zanbil. In the centre are the picturesque villages of the Zagros Mountains, giving way to the deserts of Eastern Iran and the cities of Kerman, en route to Baluchistan, and Mashhad, home to the mausoleum of Imam Reza, a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.