Proprietor : Mahan Air Co. Under the Supervision of Editorial Board and Policy Council Central Office: 4th Floor, Mahan Air Tower, Azadegan St., Karaj High-way, Tehran,iran P.O.Box: 14515411 Tel: 021-48381752 www.mahan.aero Telegram.me/mahanairchannel Instagram.com/fly_mahanair Advertisement: Mahan Inflight Magazine Didehban Press Group Maral Sharif Tel: (+9821( 88 65 94 35 Fax: (+9821( 88 65 93 82 [email protected] 13 Persian Gardens 14 Introduction 18 Travelogue 22 Silk Routes 24 Heritage Sites Documentary Works www.Mahan.aero The Persian Gardens The Persian Gardens exemplify the diversity of Persian as well as sophisticated irrigation systems. The tradition garden designs that evolved and adapted to different and style of garden design represented by Persian gardens climate conditions while retaining principles that have has influenced the design of gardens from Andalusia to their roots in the times of Cyrus the Great, 6th century BC. India and beyond. The gardens of the Alhambra show Always divided into four sectors, with water playing an the influence of Persian garden philosophy and style in a important role for both irrigation and ornamentation, the Moorish palace scale, from the era of al-Andalus in Spain. Persian garden was conceived to symbolize Eden and the Humayun’s Tomb and Taj Mahal have some of the largest four Zoroastrian elements of sky, earth, water and plants. Persian gardens in the world, from the era of the Mughal These gardens also feature buildings, pavilions and walls, Empire in India. There are nine Persian Gardens registered in the UNESCO 1. Ancient Garden of Pasargadae 2. Eram Garden, Shiraz 3. Chehel Sutun Garden, Isfahan 4. Fin Garden, Kashan 5. Abbas Abad Garden, Behshahr 6. Shazdeh Garden, Kerman 7. Dolat Abad Garden, Yazd 8. Pahlavan Pour Garden, Mehriz 9. Akbariyeh Garden, Birjand February 2018 Mahan Inflight Magazine 13 DocumentaryIntroduction Works www.Mahan.aero The Travels of Marco Polo Marco Polo was a Venetian traveler who The book went far to the East, Marco Polo owes his fame to a book which he wrote after his return. At the time, there was an intense rivalry between following some of the the great trading cities of Venice, Pisa, and Genoa. The many branches of the Venetian Polo and his co-author, Rusticiano of Pisa, were Silk Road. He left in both prisoners of war in Genoa when they met and wrote 1271 and returned about the book. Book of the Marvels of the World or Description of the World, 1295. His book about his in Italian Il Milione (The Million), and in English commonly travels was a best-seller called The Travels of Marco Polo, is a 13th-century travelogue then, and is still well- was written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by known 700 years later. Marco Polo, describing Polo’s travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan. This was the first account of a journey to the East to be widespread in Europe, and was the best reference on Asia from its publication around 1300, until the Portuguese reached the East by sea 200 years later. Polo’s tales of the riches of the East were part of the reason for the Portuguese voyages, and later inspired Christopher Columbus. The book was the first in Europe to mention a number of things including oil from Iran, and coal, paper, money, and window glass from China. The book generally uses Persian names for places. What about the Mongol names? Or Chinese? What was lost in various translations? In various wars? Background Niccolò Polo (about 1230 – 1294), and Maffeo (about 1230 – 1309( were Italian traveling merchants best known as the father and uncle, respectively, of the explorer Marco Polo. The brothers went into business before Marco’s birth, established trading posts in Constantinople, Sudak in Crimea, and in a western part of the Mongol Empire in Asia. As a duo, they Niccolò and Maffeo Polo leaving Constantinople reached modern-day China before temporarily returning for the east, in 1259. 14 FebruaryMarch 2018 2018 Mahan Mahan Inflight Inflight Magazine Magazine DocumentaryIntroduction Works www.Mahan.aero to Europe to deliver a message to the Pope. Taking Niccolò’s son Marco with them, the Polos then made After they had passed the desert, they arrived at another journey through Asia, which became the a very great and noble city called BOCARA... The subject of Marco’s account "The Travels of Marco Polo". city is the best in all Persia. ... up till the conquest by Chinghiz, Bokhara, Samarkand, Balkh, etc., were considered to First Voyage belong to Persia. The brothers set out from Constantinople (modern The Persian Empire was once much larger than modern Istanbul( in 1260, and sailed across the Black Sea to Iran, including much of what we now call Central Asia. Soldaia in the Crimea. Today the city is called Sudak and The brothers lived in Bukhara for three years and is in the Ukraine. Soldaia was a largely Greek city at that became fluent in Persian. In Bukhara, they learned time and routinely traded with various Mediterranean that the Great Khan, Kublai- grandson of Genghis and, ports. at least in theory, overlord of all Mongols- had never The two brothers lived in the Venetian quarter of met a European and had expressed curiosity about and Constantinople, where they enjoyed diplomatic goodwill toward them. So they went on, traveling via immunity, political chances, and tax relief because of Samarkand, Kashgar, Turfan, and Hami (the Northern their country’s role in establishing the Latin Empire in branch of the Silk Road) to his summer capital in Xanadu the Fourth Crusade of 1204. However, the brothers somewhat Northwest of modern Beijing. judged the political situation of the city precarious, In 1264, Niccolò and Maffeo joined up with an embassy so they decided to transfer their business northeast sent by the Ilkhanate ruler, Hulagu to his brother to Soldaia, a city in Crimea, and left Constantinople in Kublai Khan, both grandsons of Genghis Khan. In 1266, 1259 or 1260. they reached the seat of Kublai Khan, the leader of the On that time, the great trading cities of Genoa, Venice Mongol Yuan dynasty, at Dadu, present-day Beijing, and Pisa dominated the Mediterranean world. One of China. In his book, Marco explains how Kublai Khan the tourist sights of modern Sudak is the ruins of a officially received the Polos and sent them back with Genoese fortress. a Mongol named Koeketei as an ambassador to the When the Polos reached Soldaia, it was part of the pope. They brought with them a letter from the Khan newly formed Mongol state. Searching for better requesting 100 educated people to come and teach profits, the Polos continued their journey to Sarai. Christianity and Western customs to his people and At that time, the city of Sarai was no more than a huge oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher. The letter also encampment, and the Polos stayed for about a year. contained the paiza, a golden tablet a foot long and 3 Finally, they decided to avoid Crimea, because of a civil inches (7.6 cm) wide, allowing the holder to acquire war between Berke and his cousin Hulagu or perhaps and obtain lodging, horses, and food throughout the because of the bad relationship between Berke Khan Kublai Khan’s dominion. and the Byzantine Empire. Instead, they moved The Khan also invited scholars and missionaries further east to Bukhara, in modern-day Uzbekistan, from other places — Tibetan Buddhists, and Persian where the family lived and traded for three years. Muslims — and those had a great effect on China. FebruaryMarch 2018 Mahan Inflight Magazine 15 DocumentaryIntroduction Works www.Mahan.aero The Brothers arrived at Acre in... 1269, and It is usually said that the Polos used the Northern Silk found that no Pope existed, for Clement IV was Road although the possibility of a southern route has dead... and no new election had taken place. been advanced. So they went home to Venice to see how things They went East overland, traveling by caravan and stood there after their absence of so many years. heading for Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. Today the city The wife of Nicolo was no longer among the is gone, but the phrase “the straits of Hormuz” still living, but he found his son Marco a fine lad of turns up in newscasts. It is the narrows at the outlet fifteen. of the Gulf. The nearest modern city is Bandar Abbas, capital of Iran’s Hormuzgan Province. The long time between the death of Pope Clement Their route was indirect, setting out from the IV, in 1268, and the election of the new pope in 1271 Mediterranean port of Laias, North to Armenia and delayed the Polos’ attempts to fulfil Kublai’s request. Georgia, then to Mosul in what is now Iraq, then The two brothers returned to Venice in 1269 or 1270, into Persia (now known as Iran( via Tabriz, Yazd and waiting for the nomination of the new pope. Here Kerman to Hormuz. Niccolò met up with his son Marco, now fifteen or The original plan was to take a ship East from Hormuz, sixteen, who had been living with his aunt and another but after reaching Hormuz they decided to swing North uncle in Venice since the death of his mother at a instead. Marco would later come to Hormuz by sea, young age. On the second trip, the brothers brought taking the Maritime Silk Road on his return journey. young Marco along.