© Lonely Planet Publications 310 Book your stay at lonelyplanet.com/hotels SOUTHEASTERN IRAN •• Meymand 311 Southeastern Iran 0 200 km Southeastern Iran SOUTHEASTERN IRAN 0 120 miles D a s h t - e Yazd Behabad To Birjand Bandan Lake Yazd To Shiraz (96km) Khorasan-e Sistan A F G H A N I S T A N Taft Fahraj A78 (275km) Jonub Bafq L u t River ﺍﻳﺮﺍﻥ ﺟﻨﻮﺏ ﺷﺮﻗﯽ Mehriz Zein-o-din A02 P a y e h S I S T A N Zabol Kuh-e Khajeh Zarand ὄKaluts Shahr-e Sokhta Safa Lahijan This is frontier territory. And like the best frontiers it combines harsh landscapes, periodic Shahr Shafi Abad Lake Hirmand Rafsanjan Shahdad Hamun Tasuki banditry and warm welcomes to form a unique and exotic travelling experience. There are Suryan Meymand Kerman River (Bavanat) Joopar Sirch Mahan Harat Shahr-e Bardsir M o u n t a i n s Nosrat Abad real dangers, so it’s important to read the boxed text ( p325 ) before heading this way. The Rayen Babak A79 Mt Hezar Golbaf A02 region stretches east across ancient Kerman province, through high deserts scarred by To Shiraz (4420m) Sirjan Mt Lalezar Zahedan (90km) A02 P A K I S T A N brown snowcapped mountain ranges and coloured by occasional oasis towns and seasonal (4374m) Taftan ὄBam Railway Baft under Mirjaveh lakes. Kerman is the main city and is, in effect, the cultural border separating the Persians of Arg-e Fahraj construction Kerman Mt Taftan Jiroft Jadid B To Quetta the central plateau and the more eastern-oriented Baluchis, whose dress and customs feel Fars Rostam A (4042m) (380km) Abad L A79 U Khash more Pakistani than Iranian. Following ancient caravan routes southeast across the edge C Gahkom H of the forbidding Dasht-e Lut, most travellers will stop in historic Bam and then Zahedan, Kahnuj Halil E S Sistan va T A Hormozgan N River Baluchestan the capital of Sistan va Baluchestan province (where smugglers criss-cross the deserts and To Bushehr Rudan Saravan Bampur (375km) River the rule of law is tenuous). Bandar Abbas Minab Iranshahr Bandar-e For travellers, the region hasn’t been quite so attractive since the Bam earthquake in Lengeh Qeshm Island Lavan o a it f H M a k r a n M o u n t a i n s 2003 flattened the city and wrought havoc upon the monumental adobe Arg-e Bam. Island Kish t r o S r Island m Pishin o Nikshahr Rebuilding work on the Arg is ongoing, and Bam’s soothing date groves and strong tradi- z O M A N Nikshahr Jask River tion of hospitality still reward a visit. But taking in a few other places will round out your Tis Bahu Kalat P E R S I A N Konarak River trip. Sleeping in the cave hotel in Meymand is a fun way to start, and Kerman itself is G U L F U N I T E D A R A B Gulf of Oman Chabahar interesting, and an ideal base for day- and overnight-trips to the small but historic towns E M I R A T E S Gavator of Rayen and Mahan, excursions to nomad communities and camel-trekking trips. But the by her family for generations. Given her ﻣﻴﻤﻨﺪ highlight is surely the journey to Shahdad and the Kaluts, where enormous ‘sand castles’ MEYMAND pop 60 in summer, 130 in winter / elev 2240m mother is 97 and her father 115, she might stand like broken teeth punctuating the earth for as far as the eye can see and you can ‘This mosque is about 180 years old,’ said be onto something. A university project has sleep in a ‘million star hotel’. the guide, ‘it’s the newest building in the built an interesting cave museum and the village.’ Welcome to Meymand, a troglo- village hammam (bathhouse) was being re- dyte village about equidistant from Shiraz, stored when we visited. HIGHLIGHTS Yazd and Kerman. Meymand has been Sleep in a cave in Meymand ( opposite ), continuously occupied for more than 3000 Sleeping & Eating the troglodyte village without a million years and is thought to have originally been To get the most from Meymand it’s best tourists inhabited by sun-worshippers. The village to stay overnight, sleeping in a cave house Kaluts consists of 2560 rooms in 406 cave homes that has barely changed in thousands of Marvel at the gardens and historic Kerman dug into the walls of a valley, though most years. On the west side of the valley near mausoleum in Mahan ( p319 ) Mahan Rayen Meymand are now uninhabited. It’s similar to Cappa- the entrance to town, eight rooms of various Lunch in Kerman’s Hamam-e Vakil Bam docia in Turkey, albeit on a much smaller size have been converted into the Meymand Chaykhaneh ( p318 ) scale…and without the hordes of tourists. Guesthouse (x0913 356 3442 for Mr Hajirahimi, or 0351 Watch sunset over the Kaluts ( p321 ), then Meymand isn’t exactly busy, but it sees 622 5857 in Yazd; www.meymandtour.com; per person full enough day-trippers that the elderly village board first/subsequent nights IR350,000/200,000). With bed down under a million stars SOUTHEASTERN IRAN women have taken to selling locally woven namad carpets on the floors, beds carved Wander through the Arg-e Bam ( p322 ), baskets, wild herbs and traditional nomad into the walls and warm lighting, it’s easy to still a highlight even after the earthquake hats (about IR60,000) made of namad (wool be transported to another time. Bathrooms Check out the less-imposing but soaked and pressed until it mats together). are shared but clean, with steaming showers. more-intact ‘new Arg’ at picturesque If you have someone to translate for you, Mr Hajirahimi is the manager and speaks Rayen ( p321 ) the herbs are pretty interesting, too. Den- enough English to answer most questions. tally challenged Salma prescribed us herbs The three meals are prepared by vil- to treat diabetes and headache, and told us lage women and often involve ingredients SOUTHEASTERN IRAN their medicinal use has been understood grown locally. 312 SOUTHEASTERN IRAN •• Sirjan lonelyplanet.com lonelyplanet.com SOUTHEASTERN IRAN •• Kerman 313 Getting There & Away and today it remains the best place from To get to Meymand you first have to get which to explore southeastern region of the DRUG-RUNNING DROMEDARIES to Shahr-e Babak. Two buses leave Shahr- country. Sheltered from the vast Dasht-e Camels. They’re unassuming, a bit thick and no-one seems to care where they go or what they e Babak every day for Yazd (IR20,000, Lut by the barren Payeh Mountains to the do…sounds like the perfect description for undercover work. And so it is that these ships of the 4½hours) at 6.30am and 7.30am, returning north, its position and elevation make the desert have been trained to ship drugs across the deserts of southeast Iran. about 1pm and 2pm; savaris (IR35,000, three weather relatively mild in summer, but cold Like a homing pigeon, but a lot slower, the camels are trained to know where their home hours) leave from Abuzar Sq in Yazd. One in winter. The city is something of a melt- is. They are walked for several days from somewhere near the border to a predetermined place or two buses leave every day from Shiraz ing pot, blending Persians with the more beyond Kerman, thus avoiding the most concentrated police and military surveillance. The proc- and Kerman – check times in advance. subcontinental way of life of the Baluchis ess is repeated, with the camels being fed each time they arrive to build an attachment to the Savaris from Kerman cost IR40,000, or a taxi (for details see p315 ). This mixing is most destination. When they know where they’re going, kilograms of opiates are surgically inserted dar baste (closed door) should cost about evident in the historic and very lively ba- into their humps and they’re left to wander ‘home’. Even the government’s US$400 million annual IR300,000 to IR350,000 from Yazd, Shiraz or zaar, which is the highlight of any visit. war on drugs cannot account for every wandering camel in the desert. Kerman – Mr Hajirahimi (contact x0913 There are enough other sights to keep you It’s a war that’s been running for almost 30 years and seen more than 3300 soldiers die in battles 356 3442) can help to organise these. for a day or two. with heavily armed smugglers. Iran has erected electric fences, dug desert ditches (to dissuade Meymand is 35km from Shahr-e Babak Kerman’s environs are extremely dry after-hours motorcyclists) and stationed 30,000 men on the Afghan border, but still an estimated and unless you get very lucky with a hitch and the city – and province to which it 85% of all Europe’s opiates pass through Iran en route from Afghanistan and Pakistan. or rare savari, you’ll have to hire a taxi dar gives its name – are highly dependent on baste (IR35,000). qanats (underground water channels; see the boxed text, p260 ). Information Tourist information office (x245 5151, 222 8115; -EMERGENCY cnr Jomhuri-ye Eslami Blvd & Al Qadir St; h7.30am ﺳﻴﺮﺟﺎﻥ SIRJAN x0345 / elev 1730m History 24-Hour Pharmacy (x245 760; Imam Jameh St) 2pm, closed Fri) Helpful staff have brochures etc, but it’s Sirjan is not really worth a detour, but it’s Kerman is one of Iran’s oldest cities and Police headquarters (x110, 211 3068; Adalat St) too far out of town.