Discovering the city of Kermanshah (Pt.1)

I don't know how to start this entry, what to say or even if I should be saying anything, the whole name of this city is way too delicate to be thrown around in my article at the moment but the truth is we all need to start to heal somewhere, right? Okay you guys are probably wondering what on earth I'm talking about, well Kermanshah one of the west ward states of Iran was hit by a really strong earthquake back in october. The city of Kermanshah was not badly affected but the rest of the cities, gravely suffered. The earthquake with a 5. 0 magnitude lead to about 630 deaths and more than 7000 people injured; of course not to forget the thousands of people left displaced and without a home.

The earthquake hit too close to home for me, having had visited the city a few years back, I couldn't help but think of how scared those children must have been when the earth beneath them began to shook; but this story is not so that we can grieve over Kermanshah and the other cities affected. This story is so that we can celebrate the beauty of these cities, so we can learn about their rich history and their beautiful sights and if you're lucky enough maybe you will get to visit it all for yourself one day.

Okay some text book facts about this city before we go any further, first of all Kermanshah is located in the state of Kermanshah (yes I know Iranians have been very creative in choosing their state names), it is located in the west part of Iran, It is about 500 kilometers far from Tehran. Most of the people are of Kurdish origins and speak Kurdish. Okay enough of these text book facts; I want you guys to get to know the real Kermanshah, and you're lucky you have me because I have been asking around and combining my own and everyone else's knowledge to write this piece. But before anything else we need to figure out how to get to kermanshah.

How to get there:

Well first things first, assuming you guys are coming from Tehran to Kermanshan; Well you can go with a car and it's about a 7 hour drive, without stopping of course but I personally don't like long car journeys and even though that's how I went to Kermanshah myself, I don't suggest you guys to do the same. Okay I really thought you can travel to Kermanshah with the train, until I actually searched online and found out the railways haven't been completed yet so I guess we need to rule out train. Well of course now you have the option of choosing between traveling with the bus or the plane. As for flights you can always search on alibaba. ir, which is one of the leading online ticket sellers in Iran; flights can be slightly more expensive specially for those of us coming from Europe and having experienced the cheap flights from one European city to another. The flights cost like 100, 000 Tomans per way, return flight is twice as much probably.

If you decide to travel with bus know that you have made the most affordable option, you can take a night bus and sleep on the bus; the buses are new and fairly comfortable; I'm not a bus fan at all so I guess I won't be taking the bus. The duration of the journey is about 8 hours if I'm not mistaken; and as for prices I suggest checking out safar724.com, they have really affordable ticket prices and sometimes they are on sale last minute. I just checked the price and it's about 22, 000 Tomans for a one way bus ticket. So much cheaper I know.

Places to visit and what to expect:

Kermanshah (the state) itself has more than 3000 historical sites, 127 of which have been recorded as national historical sites and one actually is a global historical site by UNESCO. The most important and visit worthy ones are listed below for you guys to see.

1) Tagh Bostan (Bostan Arch)

Tagh roughly translates to an Arch. This arch dates back to the Sasanian Empire of Iran, which you guys don't exactly need to know which period it is but just know that it was a long time ago. There are two small and large arches, which demonstrate the coronation of two of the Sasanian kings (Khosro Parviz and Ardeshir the second); all of these are carved into stones, it's magnificent really; to consider how much time it must have taken to carve these masterpieces and to realize the amount of details on the carved stones. If you really appreciate historical sites you will appreciate the hell out of Tagh Bostan. There is also a waterfall and lake nearby which has turned this place in to a picnic site as well, with the many Kebab shops that you can find in the area, you could treat yourself with some Kebabs right after. Tagh Bostan was actually supposed to become a UNESCO heritage site but apparently the presence of these Kebab shops might have created a problem; I don't clearly know what happened but I remember hearing something about it.

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2) Bistoon

The one UNESCO world site heritage of Kermanshah is Bistoon. It's has a length of 5 kilometers and a width of 3 kilo meters; in this place there are numerous historical sites, all with their own unique names. They contain a lot of stone carvings, inscriptions etc. This is actually my favorite place in all of Kermanshah, you can truly see the beauty of these old historical sites. I am in love with stone carvings and this place is full of them. Back then Bistoon was actually considered a sacred place, due to the clear waters of Bistoon river and the greenery this place was favored by many kings and so they built a lot of different structures here; some of which remain until today. The other reason is the presence of many high mountains, which gave an increased amount of spectacularity to these carvings.

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I suggest you guys to look for the "Dariush Inscription", written in three languages of Parsi, Ilami and Baboli. It's actually been carved 70 meters above the ground level and I keep imagining how hard is must have been to actually do a carving like this with such minimal instruments back then. True art is this, I don't consider anything else art, don't fight me over it. But the question is what does Dariush actually talks about in this inscription? well he talks about his reign and victories, he names himself the 9th king of the Achaemenid Empire and speaks of the wars he has won. What stories the inscription actually contains are quite interesting to even people like me, which don't know much about history.

I definitely and definitely suggest visiting Bistoon, I mean I can't think of anywhere more important to go to during your visit to Kermanshah. I absolutely adore this place and I know you would too.

3) Anahita Temple

Anahita temple is located in Kangavar, which is about 100 kilometers from the city of Kermanshah, it's about a one and a half hour drive and it contains this splendid temple. This temple is the second largest stone site ( I don't know if that's the correct name) after Takhte Jamshid (I have written about Persepolis in my Shiraz piece). This temple is one of the most beautiful and important temples of all of Iran. I remember when I was a kid and we visited this temple, my mom made me pose in front of the stone hedges and took like a million pictures of me and I literally closed my eyes in all of them, no wonder she preferred taking pictures of my brother when we were younger. Yes I'm sure you liked hearing about my traumatic childhood experience, let's move on now. Back to Anahita (by the way Anahita is a female Persian name). The name Anahita actually comes from the Goddess with the same name in the Avesta book (The zoroastrian religious book), she is the symbol of beauty, wit and purity. I bet you thought only the Greeks had Goddesses.

The walls of this temple go as high as 18 meters, I can't even build a 50 cm wall and how they managed to build walls like that is beyond me. In the year 1336 (Persian calander), about 90 years ago there was an earthquake here and it has done some unfixable damage to the temple; the ruins still remain until today but it's not the same anymore. I do think it's worth a visit. Oh by the way this temple is located in the road between Kermanshah and Hamedan. A lot of tourists actually visit Hamedan as well so I guess you could make a small stop on the way and visit this beautiful little city and this majestic temple as well.

(Not much remaining I know)

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4) Ghori Ghale Cave

To be honest I don't even know what's the meaning of the name of this cave in Persian let alone translating it to English. Ghale means castle but I can't even remotely guess what the other word means. Anyways, let's see what this cave is all about. Well this cave is about 87 kilometers, it's actually the biggest water cave in all of Asia, I didn't know this before I visited the cave. Okay you better take your pullover or your blanket with you because the inside of this cave ranges from 7 to 11 degrees and well you can get quite cold if you're going in summer. The first place you will see in the cave is a lake which is surrounded by all these beautiful gandules, I mean it they are magnificent, I just wanted to pick one and go home with it; the interesting thing is that this place is named after The lady Mary, because the gandules are shaped in the form of her, I wish I took a picture but it was so long ago that I don't think I even owned an iphone back then.

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Yes further down the cave and there are even larger and nicer gandules, all having different shapes which has been formed without any human help, it's all natural and beyond breath taking. But I guess the most interesting and unmissable part of the cave is the lake that is located in the 1000 meter distance of the cave; it's beyond spectacular, so basically it contains gandules that when you touch them you hear different musical instruments, like oh my god how cool is that? this part of the cave is actually named Beethoven!

Go even a bit further and discover so much more, in the 1500 meter distance of the cave, you can find the part which is named bride; due to all the crystal like gandules, which are bright and shine in a way that they could make you go blind. There are so many more mysterious parts to this cave, all of which make you wonder about the beauty that you are surrounded with and how on earth something this beautiful could be formed so deep underground? you may think I'm getting too deep now but I'm serious once you visit this place you'll kow what I have been talking about.

The last part of this cave that I'm going to talk about is the Limbo part of the cave, this part is actually known to be scary and I guess be prepared? I'm not going to tell you what's inside here or what sights await you, just wait and see for yourself.

Do visit this cave, I don't know how else to emphasize it, you do not want to miss it, trust me.

To be continued

Cheers

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