Iran , trésor de Perse - Téhéran - Ispahan - Découverte - Documentaire voyage - HD - AMP

Discovering Iran was a journey back in time to the beginning of our civilization, where the Persian Empire once dominated the world. As the Islamic Republic of Iran, the country has lived through dark times, but today it offers a more peaceful face with multiple facets. That of the delicate blue ceramics of the disappearing religious monuments, the greatness of Persepolis or the wealth of Shiraz. Here, hospitality is not a vain word. And from the bottom of the Zagros mountains to the gates of the desert, the Iranians have opened their doors to us for a magnificent de-peasement. Tehran, the capital, has become in a few years a megalopolis of 8 million inhabitants. Unlike other major cities in Iran, it is a recent city where history has left only a relative mark. The Azadi Tower is one of the symbols of Tehran. It dates back to 1971, is 45 meters high, and is covered with 25,000 plates of disappearing white marble. Persians, Azeris, Gilakis or Kurds, the population of Iran today is the result of nearly 5,000 years of history dating back to the beginning of Mesopotamia. At the heart of the historical center of Tehran, the Gholestan Palace is one of the oldest ensembles in Tehran, originally built by the Safavid dynasty in the fortified historical city. After the construction of the extension in the 19th century, the palace was chosen as a royal residence and seat of power by the Qajar ruling family. The Gholestan embodied a new style at the time, combining traditional Persian art and craftsmanship with elements of the 18th century European architecture and technology. The Talar-e-Salam was the welcome hall before it became the throne room. Sculptures of great finesse accompany a work of gold leaf around precious stones. Gardens in Iranian palaces always play an important aesthetic role. A little apart, the Emara Bajir is one of the oldest buildings in the Gholestan Palace. It was built at the time of the Fatali cat. It underwent several modifications, mainly to be used in summer, due to smart and efficient ventilation. Nearby, in the city center, access to the bazaar is constantly animated. The bazaar is a central actor of trade in Iran. According to estimates, 8% of the country's economy runs through the bazaar, which is more than a simple market. A kind of vast informal stock exchange where the prices of the main goods are determined on the spot. The city has grown too fast. Infrastructure has not yet followed suit, and traffic jams are as high as the size of the capital. We are heading north of the city. The cultural site of the Saad Abad is quite surprising. It highlights several royal summer residences, which were frequented under the rule of the Pahlavis. During the revolution, all the places that referred to the different dynasties that reigned over the country were annihilated. Today, as Tehran is a young city, these buildings, such as the Green Palace, are almost the only existing historical heritage. They have therefore been highlighted and are widely visited by a curious population of the opulence of these residences. The Mela Palace was mainly occupied by the cat Mohammed Reza and the queen Farah. It had been built by his father in 1937. It served as a summer residence where receptions were held in the dozen salons. Lower in the city, the Niavaran Palace is the residence where the last cat spent more than ten years of his reign. A 1360s style, but functional, with magnificent carpets that were associated with European-style furniture, without neglecting a clear Napoleonic influence. In the more recent neighborhoods, the slow opening that the country knows also translates into the emergence of European coffee. Tehran is at an average altitude of 1,200 meters. The city is surrounded by mountains and it is in winter that we best perceive this evidence. One of the privileged destinations of the inhabitants is Mount Toshal, which is served by a long cable car that starts from the foot of the capital. We reach the summit by two trunks and already at the first stop the atmosphere has completely changed. The snow and the cold are well present. It is the starting point for long hikes when the climatic conditions allow it. The summit of Mount Toshal is at an altitude of 3,964 meters. The city has left room for a small ski resort. Several cable cars allow you to enjoy the slopes and the snow. The atmosphere has nothing to envy to other ski resorts around the world. Behind Toshal, further north, the chain of the Arboz extends through magnificent valleys. In the distance is the Damavand mountain, with its almost perfect cone that culminates at 5,671 meters. One of the symbols of Iran. Dizin is the most famous and oldest ski resort in Iran. At an altitude of 2,650 meters, it benefits from excellent snow conditions and has several cable cars and cabins. We come from Tehran for the day. During the weekend, the slopes and the resort are often very popular. In the adjacent valley, Darbansar and Shemshak are resorts based on Mount Sechi. Thanks to the marked slopes, they are quite successful. Here again, we find the atmosphere of a small ski resort far from the concerns of the capital, which is only about two hours away. Taking the road to the north of the country, the city of Kasvin was in the past the capital of the Persian Empire in the 16th century. Today, better known for its experts in calligraphy, we also come there on pilgrimage to pray on the tomb of the son of an imam, Imam Zadeh Hussain, very important among the Shiites. The mausoleum was built in the 14th century, later rebuilt under the Safavids, and completed in the 19th century by a large Qajar portal decorated with ceramics. Religious dignitaries or very pious people have the right, as today at their funerals, to be able to approach the tomb. The cenotaph is under the dome, in the center of a room decorated with a mirror mosaic. It's really sunny. Continuing the road north, we arrive on the beaches of the Caspian Sea, a particularly humid region where the sun is desired. Fishing has been regulated by the authorities. For this month of May, it is already over for several weeks. The season has not yet begun. Around the port of Anzali, which is the most important on the north coast, activity is sustained. Some fishermen still cast nets. At the time, Anzali was also a place of important caviar production. Visiting the port by canoe is still an attraction. At the end of the day, in the neighboring village of Funan, it's the fluency. A local specialty is prepared there, the koulouch, a biscuit stuffed with nuts and sugar. The dough is first kneaded for a long time. Then the biscuit is prepared, adding the nut paste at the same time. Before baking it for a few minutes, a relief decoration is printed on it. The Guilane region is the country's attic and orchard. Thanks to this humidity, rice is grown there. A little further in the plain, it is the tea plantations that occupy the land. Harvesting has started since late April. Despite the rain, the pace is sustained for a rustic black tea whose aromas are similar to those found in Turkey. Ali Farza works for the landowner and prepares the bags that will go to the plant. We usually start harvesting at the end of April. We usually harvest for about 20 days. Then we stop for three weeks to a month. And then we do one last harvest. Chai Sho is one of the many tea plantations in the area. The harvest of the day is carried to the floor, where it is dried. We drink a lot of tea in Iran, but the harvests in this region barely meet the local demand. The rest of the country imports tea from India or Sri Lanka. Abib Askari, the manager, does not need to look for tea plants. He sells easily. In Iran, in general, to start the day, we start with a cup of tea. It's a tradition. And here, in the north of Iran, we only produce tea for the people of our region. Leaving the plains to climb the Elbourz chain, we reach the characteristic villages of this region of Gilan, as here in Masoulé. Located at an altitude of 1,000 meters, the architecture of Masoulé is unique. The buildings were built on a mountainside and are connected to each other. The courtyards and roofs serve as pedestrian spaces in the same way as the streets, since the roof of a house serves as a courtyard to the house below. Here we speak of the Gilaki, the local dialect that has many Caucasian roots. In the center of the village, we come to have tea accompanied by fresh bread before starting the day in the fields. At the last census, 550 inhabitants were counted, divided into 180 families. Little has changed since the origins of the village, dating back to the 10th century. The blacksmith, on the other hand, is particularly active. He takes care of all the tools used in the fields around. We are now leaving for the center of the country, in Isfahan. For three centuries, this dam bridge regulates the river and rhythms the life of the city. With its 24 arches and its 132 meters long, the Rajou is the most famous bridge in Iran. From the 16th to the 18th century, Isfahan, located in the center of the country, was the capital of the Shahs. It is an obligatory and almost initiatory step for any traveler in Iran. Honored by generations of poets like the jewel of the Muslim Persia, its reputation is not usurped. Once known under the name of Place du Shah and today as Place de l'Imam Khomeini, it is one of the largest places in the world, probably one of the most beautiful. The visit to this place, where we used to play polo, is done according to the tradition in Kalash. It is surrounded by architectural splendor, like the palace of Ali Kapoor, or like the Mosque of the Shah and like the Mosque of Sheikh Loftallah. It was completed in 1619 after 16 years of work. Constructed in an unusual way, without a minaret, without an interior courtyard, it was reserved for a private use of the royal family. This architectural splendor Isfahan owes to Shah Abbas I, the great king Sefavid, who attracted to his court the best architects, artisans, sculptors, ceramists, some of whom came from Europe, China and India. The dome is remarkable due to the finesse of its decoration, the pastel colors, which the light of day makes vary according to the height of the sun. The mihrab is probably one of the most beautiful in Iran, surrounded by calligraphy, where we find the names of the twelve Shiite imams as well as those of the architects of the mosque. In Isfahan, even the access to the bazaar is made by a door covered with magnificent frescoes. Protected from the heat in the alleys, the bazaar is one of the most sought-after in Iran. Hundreds of shops compete there to sell spices, jewels or carpets. Each alley has its own specialty and its own atmosphere. In a more featured wing, protected from the eyes, it is the gold and silver merchants who offer finely crafted jewels, essential for a wedding. At the bazaar, the Hazadegan Tea Salon is undoubtedly one of the most atypical places in Isfahan. Ancient objects have been accumulated by several generations of the Hazadegan family, so much so that it has become a museum where the nargile is smoked. This way of smoking aromatized tobacco with a water pipe was in fact invented by the Iranians. The Si'o Sepol is one of the other remarkable bridges in Isfahan. With 33 arches and double-level traffic, before the Arab conquest, it separated the Iranian city from the Armenian city. On the other side of the bridge, you have to benefit from the help of initiates to discover one of the masters of Isfahan's tapestry. Akbar Madi'i, since his youngest age, has frequented the masters of the city's tapestry to affirm his style around the flowers that he treats with realism and audacity on cartons that he paints himself and which will serve as a guide for weaving. It will take about 80 cartons and more than a year of work before moving on to manufacturing. In one of the many workshops he has, Amir, one of Akbar's sons, supervises the manufacture of a 25 square meter tapestry. For example, this size of the carpet, maybe, for example, we have three or four years. After that, about 10 people should be working here to finish it about four years. It's so hard. So, we should have a big emotion and I want to say the only solution is for a carpet. All the colors are obtained from natural dyes. Akbar's boards serve as a reference. The work is done with remarkable precision. It is regularly checked by the workshop manager. The result is up to the efforts made. Here, in this private exhibition hall, the family receives the clients interested in his works and is able to spend nearly 200,000 euros to acquire them. We are back at the place of Naghejahan, where the mosque of Jahame Abassi is one of the masterpieces of Persian architecture. The entrance already gives the tone with seven shades of blue found in the mosaics and calligraphy. Above the marble arch, each space, each niche is worked in a complex way. All have their own decoration. The Abassi first cat began working in 1611. It was only towards the end of his reign in 1629 that he was able to start taking advantage of his spectacular project. The dome, 36 meters high, is a wealth in its exceptional decoration. Today, the mosque is used in particular for Friday prayer, which explains that the main courtyard is covered with scaffolding to protect the faithful from the sun. The Ali Kapo Palace is the residence of the Abassi first cat. Thanks to this imposing six-story building, he could enjoy an exceptional view of the main square. Meloman, he had designed on the last floor music halls with acoustics particularly performing for the time. More recently, the palace of She'el Satoun served under the reign of Abassi second cat as a pavilion of relaxation and reception. The pieces of apparatus are covered with frescoes showing the courage of the Persian rulers, as well as those depicting the victory of Nadir Shah over the Mughals. In the city, nothing indicates from the outside the presence of a zouraneh, which means a house of strength. It is an arena, a kind of gym reserved for men. There is fighting and weight training. This gymnastics inherited from the Persians is in renewal. All the machines used refer to a weapon or to the war. The massus weigh from 5 to 45 kilos. This is something that started about 5,000 years ago, but not as a sport, more like a training. About 3,000 years ago, with the multiplication of wars, they also began to train outside with horses. The Zouraneh When everyone is in full, the moshed, the guide, rhythm, warm-up and weight training. Abel Fazi is one of the most talented members of this zouraneh. In another register, the music museum that has just opened is the result of a work of ant made by enthusiasts. They managed to bring together more than 300 traditional instruments of Persian music, whether they belong to the national heritage or are from the regional folklore. Merad himself is an eminent musician. It is the first private museum in Iran dedicated to music. We opened it only five months ago, but we have been collecting instruments for years. And you know, we really do it for the love of music, for the love that we bring to our culture and our instruments. Merad often gathers musicians around him considered as masters in their specialty. Javad with his tombak is of an amazing virtuosity and sensitivity. In the east of Isfahan, the Zagros mountains form one of the main mountain ranges of the country. We are in the Baktiar territory, the largest nomadic tribe in Iran. In the village of Shelgerd, at an altitude of 2,300 meters, the first families have just arrived from their winter zone in the Rouzestan. The baker must increase his production. Men wear a black felt hat and a beige wool coat with black patterns. In the family of Fariborz, they prepare an optorchi, a specialty based on dried fruit. For the optorchi, we first bring back onions, then I add almonds, cashews, raisins, dried apricots and some spices. As soon as the temperature becomes pleasant, the families live outside after particularly rigorous winter months. We also add raisins. The valleys frequented by the Baktiar are huge. They settled at the foot of a glacier with their herd of about 150 animals. In winter, everything is covered with thick layers of snow, which in this month of May have just melted. It is here that the Kourang, one of the largest glaciers in the region, takes its source. Above, several peaks exceed 4,000 meters. The last big avalanches are still struggling to melt. Lower in the valley, near Shelgerd, a family completes their journey of several hundred kilometers on foot. They have soon reached their summer camp. All their belongings are on horses and mules. They will settle not far from Davoudi's family, whose part of the family lives in a small village in the valley. Their way of life is ancestral. Their number decreases year after year, either by the pressure of the government, which has always wanted to be able to control them, or by the progressive elevation of the standard of living in Iran. More and more, the children are being educated, without forgetting that life without running water and without electricity is not easy. But farming remains the foundation and the migratory engine of a very hierarchical tribal society. The flat pancakes of wheat accompany the tea in the morning and are the basis of all the food during the day. In the morning, the mats used by the family to sleep are rolled on the side and thus allow visitors to be welcomed. We live in these traditional tents. We do not live in villages, but in these tents. To migrate, we need a week, before it took at least two weeks to get to Iran. It is above all the grandparents who are attached to this way of life in full nature. They also appreciate all this spirit of freedom that goes with it. In these valleys, all around the Zardakou, which culminates at 4,500 meters, the herds find plenty of food and water. A lot of water from the melting of the snow, which inspired the pioneers of hydroelectric dams in Iran, like this one, which was built 60 years ago. The Zardakou is located to the south of the country, where the landscape has become deserted. Maibod is a city dating back more than 1,800 years, whose historical center, built in the ground, still resists the winds coming from the desert. Narin's castle is the oldest vestige of this type of construction. It dates back to before the arrival of Islam in Iran. It was built on the hill of Galin, from where it dominates the whole city. Historians are divided if they agree to say that the Zardakou was built under the Achaemenid and Sassanid dynasties, some advance that it could also have been one of the very first temples of the Zoroastrian fire. All around, there are remains of inhabited land, which are gradually abandoned by the inhabitants to join more modern buildings. 70 km from Maibod, located between the desert of Dash and Kavir, in the north, and that of Dash and Lout, in the south, Yazd is an amazing city. According to UNESCO, it would be one of the most ancient cities in the world after Ur in Mesopotamia. Yazd was known 3,000 years before Jesus Christ under the name of Yazatis. With minarets nearly 50 m high, the Mosque of Jameh has one of the most imposing entrances in Iran. It would have been built in the 15th century on the remains of a mosque dating from the 12th century, which itself replaced an ancient temple of the fire. It is one of the most beautiful examples of the Azari style. The mosaics are finely crafted. There are several floral themes that are supposed to show what paradise looks like. The dome and the mihrab also take up these illustrations through the mosaics where entire calligraphy sections are interspersed. The mosque is still in operation. It is considered to be Yazd's Great Mosque. In the old city around Farodan Square, everything is only walls made of adobe or earth bricks. The roofs are made of ventilation chimneys, air vents that catch the wind and the slightest breath of air, thus naturally airing the rooms of the houses. Like in the Laria House, built in the 13th century, this residence belonged to rich merchants. In the more modern part of the city, the merchants continued the activity that had made Yazd, at the time of Marco Polo, one of the most active cities on the Silk Road. It is by going into the kitchens that one can discover the secrets of these baklava, which are much sweeter than in the Middle East. Yazd is an important city for the Zoroastrians, one of the oldest religions in the world. It dates back to several centuries before Jesus Christ. It was the religion of Persia for four centuries before the conquest of the Arabs. In the Temple of Fire, the faithful purify themselves at the contact of the fire, whose flame has been maintained since the Night of Time. Another important place for the Zoroastrians are the Towers of Silence. In Yazd, they are located outside the city. After death, the corpses were considered by the Persians as impure objects that could not be buried, thrown into the fire or into the water without soaking one of its three elements. Only the corpse of the king was divine and therefore had the right to a tomb. The other bodies were exposed in large open towers, the Towers of Silence, to be devoured by the birds of prey. When there was only the bones left, they were then gathered in a central ossuary. The presence of the Towers of Silence in the middle of the desert did not prevent Yazd from having a clever irrigation system and from being able to maintain superb gardens such as that of Dolaatabad. On the road from Shiraz to the west, it is customary to make several symbolic stops, such as in Abarkou, where we stop to see a cypress 4,500 years old, venerated by the Zoroastrians. Or in Passargadé, with the tomb of Cyrus II, which brings us to 559 BC, at the time when he had founded the Achaemenid Empire. Naxerostam is another impressive site. It contains four rupestrious royal Achaemenid tombs, cruciform, with immense bas-reliefs. One of these, according to the inscriptions it presents, would be the tomb of Darius I. The three other tombs next to those of Darius I would be those of Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I and Darius II. Darius only rests a few kilometres from his masterpiece, Persepolis. It was originally called Parsa. In 515 BC, its founder, Darius I, accomplished wonders in building it. On 13 hectares, it was a succession of palaces, rooms of apparatus, rare wood, walls upholstered with gold, marble in profusion, precious stones. For 200 years, the successive rulers celebrated their reign on an empire that extended from the Tigris to the Nile, or even from the Indus to Ethiopia when it was at its peak. Darius had accumulated so much wealth that when Alexander the Great seized the city in 330, it took 10,000 mules and 500 camels to carry it all. After that, Persepolis was set aflame. The 18th century capital of the Zende dynasty, Shiraz is another oasis of greenery and culture in the center of the country. It owes its reputation as a literary center of Persia to the poet Hafez, who lived in the 14th century. Even today, he is the most revered poet in the country. We come around his marble tomb to recite a few verses from the Divan, his monumental work. Lower in the city center, the Nasirol Molk mosque looks, at first glance, like a rather traditional place of worship. But it hides a magnificent secret, high in color. A prayer room entirely lit by stained-glass windows, which highlight the vaults and the decoration of the room only with the first rays of morning sun. This Shiite mosque was built at the end of the 19th century. It was nicknamed the pink mosque by the dominant color of its interior decorations. On many pillars, an eye will be able to distinguish wooden ankles in the stone. It is in this important seismic zone that the consequences of an earthquake are best amortized. Floral themes often refer to European artists. Churches are even discovered there. In the Pans-et-Persanne, the garden represents paradise on earth. The one in Eram is the most frequented example. Basins and orchards of roses and eglantine emerge from a 20th century Qajar palace with a luxurious facade, decorated with calligraphy and painted by wild animals. Shiraz is not only a nostalgic city of its past. Magnificent properties have taken over the old residences of the merchants. In the city center, the citadel of Karim Rani was built at the initiative of the first king of the Indian dynasty. The sovereign hoped to be able to rival the palace of his parents. In fact, Karim Rani, in 1766, entrusted some of the best architects of the country with the construction of the works that were completed in a few years. The citadel became one of the royal palaces of the Indian sovereigns before being turned into a prison by the first Pahlavi sovereign, Reza Shah. In the center of the castle, Golam Ali perpetuates the tradition of marquetry that was in vogue at that time. It is an art that requires a lot of precision and patience. If in the past these different pieces were used for service at receptions, today they are considered as works of art and are rather valued. The hammam is the most intimate place in a palace and often very beautiful. In the old city, the undulations of the roofs indicate that we are in the bazaar. Still under the Indian dynasty, the ambition of the sovereign was to make the bazaar an important place of commerce. But when the Qajars seized the city to move the capital to Tehran, the influence of Shiraz decreased considerably. It is in a slight retreat from the bazaar that we find in tiny shops craftsmen who work jewelry, gold or silver and thus feed an activity that is still flourishing. The Shah-e-Sherag is one of the holiest places in Shiism in Iran. It is both a mausoleum and a huge mosque. This is where Mir Armad rests, one of the brothers of Imam Reza killed during the Abbasid Caliphate in a religious war. Becoming a place of pilgrimage since the 14th century, the site has been restored several times and enlarged due to the many earthquakes it suffered. While it is 37 degrees in Shiraz, the last snowfall on the Rounji slowly melts at 3,700 meters in altitude. We are a few hours away from the great city of the south, in Kashkai, the other great nomadic tribe in Iran. Bahman came to join his family who arrived recently to spend several months of summer. My tribe are the Kashkais. My family lives six months of the year in winter and six months of the year in summer. They each have a journey of 700 kilometers that they make on foot. We speak Turkish and we live here at the foot of the mountain called the Roudje. There are about 125 families in this sector and my family has about 200 goats and sheep. You should know that for nomads, horses and rifles are very important attributes. As the heat settles in, the men will lead the herd higher and higher where the reserves seem inexhaustible. His father does not get tired of telling the visitors that he is tired of crossing hills and long valleys at a steady pace. To celebrate their installation, he asked his son to go get a goat for lunch. A whole ritual takes place at the foot of the stream while the mother of Barman prepares the vegetables. They speak Turkish to each other and their songs also have unusual sounds in the south of Iran. I am a nomad in this world I have no money I have no land I am a nomad in this world I have no money I have no land I am a nomad in this world I have no land I am a nomad in this world I have no land The herd's herd requires a whole organization to gather the animals and the herds. Only then will the whole clan be able to have lunch and enjoy a little rest. It is from the south of Iran that we end this journey in a country that still has many riches to reveal to us.