Traveling Through Iran's Ancient Cities: The Journey Of Marco Polo | Marco Polo Reloaded Part 2

[Music] traveling is his profession Bradley Mayhew writes tourist guides mostly about Asia this time he is working on a very special project an adventure an experiment he ret travels a route taken by a merchant from Venice more than 750 years [Music] ago he is happy with any transport he can get always East along the great Silk Road through remote mountain ranges inhospitable deserts and ancient cities Bradley Mayu follows the route of Marco Polo from Venice to Beijing through countries such as Iran and Afghanistan 10,000 km Overland a journey as great an adventure today as in Marco Poo's [Music] time getting hold of a Visa has been far from Easy this is a country with shall we say a dubious reputation on a train headed for T it's good to be here last Bradley mayew has been on the road for almost 2 months by now from Venice he has traveled through Israel and Syria to Turkey now he has reached the fifth country on his route very plush tea coffee free newspaper what more could you want welcome to [Music] Iran big bad Iran the land of the ayas it's got a got such a terrible reputation that uh for me that just makes it even more interesting you know I I I just can't believe that the country is as bad as all the images I see on the TV so for me it's an extra thrill have a look at what what the country is really likes you know trying to get beyond the headlines the one thing I found in my travels is the worst the government often the nice of the people so uh um I'm looking forward to to getting getting underneath the skin a little bit it hasn't been easy to find a travel companion in Iran but a friend has helped Bradley with an email address and now he is here Arash sat a young lawyer from tyan welcome shall we take a t j and go to hotel perfect Arabs Turks Persian safavids and Russians have ruled over this magnificent Trade Center located in the west of present day Iran today 1.5 million people live in t you can see T bre is a modern bustling City like could be any other city in the Middle East but then slowly you see the women are all dressed in black they're all wearing their hijab some of them wearing the shador then you you start to pick out all the details and the color and each person has their own kind of little bit of makeup little bit of hair coming out the front it's a kind of a uh your own silent stamp on the on the hijab you have to adjust your eyes when Marco Polo reached the Persian Empire he must have seen buildings like this one Monumental in scale sophisticated in detail the Blue Mosque of tiis it took 33 years to cover the building in blue glazed [Music] Ceramics is the colors the calligraphy this the whole the kind of sense of grandeur that these buildings are s supposed to inspire this is your your your insignificance you know under under Islam this is exactly what what this is meant to to do the Real Genius is is the Dome CU you can imagine in a land here with no wood how do you create these huge gigantic buildings the Dome is the answer for Marco Polo you can imagine him coming here in the 13th century these buildings were the skyscrapers of the age the was were Epic sunbaked Rick I mean this was this was didn't get any more impressive than this he must have been totally blown away by this kind of architecture on this kind of scale the tiis bazaar had been one of the most important hubs along the Silk Road goods from China or India were collected here before they were traded on to Europe for a millennium carpets have been the most important commodity here brought from across Persia carpet Traders are not simply Traders they oversee the entire process of carpet production only they can afford the significant investment a carpet like this from tize with its typical Central rosette can easily cost up to €10,000 wholesale this is my favorite one so far not sure it's quite going to fit in my backpack but you know I'm going to try if only I had a a horse or a camel this will be the one to take at the crossroads of the bazaar Traders are relaxing in the middle of the hustle and bustle with a glass of tea Bradley studies the wonders of the world The Book of Mark Polo which during his time the late 13th century caused a huge stir in Europe tab is a great and Noble City men tabis get their living by trade and handicrafts weaving many kinds of beautiful and valuable stuffs of silk and gold where Merchants make large profits here in the carpet Bazar of tabis you can see that nothing much has really changed the big profits are still here as they were back then 7,000 shops spread over 7 square kilometers two dozen caravaner eyes and as many Tim canopi Market Halls make to breze one of the largest covered bazaars in the world in one of the eldest Tim secondhand carpets are for sale really a rich series of designs got like a tree tree of life design it holds is always the symbols of uh Persian Gardens you can find many um different types of flowers and tree leaves it was the most important part of our furniture we sleep on it we leave in it we drink in it we eat in it on it I mean and uh at last we die on it well these are all wool and carpets I think so we're going to try and track down some silk there's got to be some silk on the silk road somewhere so we're going to do some more detective work and find [Music] some the tze bazaar is not only the largest commercial center for Persian Carpets New carpets are designed here as well antique ones are restored and also so the yarn from which the carpets are made is dyed right here in the bazaar Muhammad Saban dyes wool or silk depending on his customer orders Bradley is in luck a Trader has just brought in some raw silk [Music] mm natural dyes are still used for carpets of the highest quality the dyes are for sale in the bazaar as well that's the great thing is that they're not selling just old just new plastic goods made from China A lot of these goods are made in these back alleys and just behind the the the facade that you see so it's all still going on in the in the background it's uh yeah really nice to see [Music] this there's a there's a definitely a Sil Road feel here just from the bazaars have been here for for centuries and you can kind of feel that through the carpets as well this has been a a carpet center for you know thousand years or so and you get carpets here from all over Asia from aan from Turkey from Turman carpets from aara Pakistan Afghanistan they all come in here to tabz it's like a mini it's a mini Silk Road of its own here how is it [Music] good where does the silk come from AR rash and Bradley hear that there is a village not far from tiis called hanu in which silk is spun 30 to 40 km far from t [Music] I think that's an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription required the two are asking for directions to Gollum Resa fatti who runs the village [Music] Workshop the raw silk comes from other regions of Iran but it is spun and processed here 200 families in the village make their living from Notting [Music] [Music] carpets 120 to 140 knots per square cm are required to make a carpet of the highest quality 25,000 ties 25,000 per day between the four of between the four say 8,000 knots per person per day wow to this day Persian carpets are made mainly in cottage industries like this one a rash is told he's not satisfied with his job it doesn't worse to labor in such a difficult job and earn for for a little money but he has no way out he doesn't know any other job to do this work is so intricate it's amazing I'm this far away and I still can't work out how it's done the amount of Nots you have to pay to earn your money it's um yeah this is not this is not an easy [Music] job some 400 km East Bradley follows a path that leads him into Iran's highest mountain range he is on the trail of the [Music] Assassins we've still got about 70 km roads to go up in the mountains back in marcoo say this is a center of a violent enigmatic SI we going to check it out [Music] Marco Polo describes some of the places he visits in just a few lines but he devotes three long chapters of his book to these mountains and to the Assassins the alqaeda of his time I think he was recounting one of the major stories of the day this was something you'd heard all along the Silk Road had been kind of whispered down the stages and he'd heard this story and this was this was the big news of the time it's got everything it's got murders assassinations it's got castles up in the mountains it's got images of paradise it's got even got racy references to women so it's you know it's a very exotic story he was recounting back to his readers back in Europe deep in the elor mountain range lay the headquarters of the Assassins hidden away on an impregnable rock this is where H Al suburb created this Earthly Paradise he would drug up these young warriors with hashish he says hashishin the Assassins he would then drop them in this this beautiful garden these streams of honey and milk beautiful flowers everywhere and according to Marco Polo these young women experts in the the Arts of love it's a very kind of salacious little uh little comment and then the old man would take them out the garden bring them back here and say you know I can take you back to par Paradise I have this power anytime I want and now if you do my bidding I can I can bring you back here killings assassinations and suicide missions were the hallm marks of the so-called assassins who can be considered the first suicide bombers in history viers princes the cff of Egypt famous Statesmen of their time all fell victim the remnants of their fortresses are all that remain sending out these young men on religious or politically motivated assassinations fueling these these guys with the idea of of martyrdom and and Paradise I mean for me if you if you then add some words like like like Al-Qaeda or or suicide bombers there is a a parallel to the modern world not here not Iran I'm not talking about you know the the Iranian regime here at all in any way but on a more General level there does seem to be some parallels there does seem to be even some some [Music] inspiration for three decades Iran has been an Islamic Republic a theocracy in which all power lies in the hands of the religious [Music] leaders staying with a rash saves Bradley the cost of an hotel which is fine with him no one becomes a guide book writer to get rich hi It's Bradley yeah I'm fine thanks everything is good I'm still alive I'm in Teran yeah I I can't believe it either they actually gave me a Visa yeah everything's going well uh no problems people are great uh the only problem I have is money so I was hoping maybe we could get that second Advance paid yeah that would be great yeah perfect good okay cheers byebye so how do you know which car is a taxi they all look the same to me yeah uh in your run every car can be a c so uh anyone yeah it's supposed as a second job for most of people when uh the window is a little bit open you shout your destination to the driver sh ABD aim the two are heading to the holy Shrine of sha Abdul aim in the south of Tran Arash explains that taxes in tran don't simply go where you want you take them to a certain location and then take another cab you speak English where you come from yeah and you speak English too yeah little I'm from England and how's life in Teran oh not bad yeah yeah we are used to do you have any um you have any modern Iranian music you can play yeah of course I have yeah that would be good I can play my own music from my band interested in you have your own band Yes I'm musician Ali Razer tabatabai is a drummer in an underground band They arrang to meet in the evening Al res nice to meet you great thank you hope to see you tonight yeah in the southern outskirts of tyan Lies the grave of Abdul aim a descendant of Imam Hussein who is held in high esteem throughout sheia Islam the people come to Holy shrines for praying and crossing their fingers for important issues like marriage important exams or the issues of private life only Believers are allowed to visit the grave of the Imam as a non-muslim Bradley has to wait outside there are tens of thousands of shrines or Imam Z across Iran this is the third or fourth most holiest Shrine in the area there is a great you know Wellspring of faith and this is one place where you can go uh and express that it's a very important part of the Iranian psyche it's it's very much government supported as well connected to the shrine is a mosque on Friday the Believers attend the weekly sermon which frequently has a political agenda but mainly people are mourning the death of Imam Hussein a grandson of the Prophet who was killed by Sunni assassins 14400 years ago to Shiites he is their most important Mar [Music] back to the city center with the brand new metro line number one towards Imam K Square this is Rush Hour [Music] inan going to go see that drummer you know the guy we met in the taxi he says I can go listen to his band head up to North tyan I'm worried about you if you are going going to be lost here in tyan you cannot speak fary no problem I'll find my way no problem okay well I'll see you later yeah see you tonight see you okay I don't know what I'm going to see with the taxi driver but his music was pretty cool he seemed like a good guy so uh yeah why not let's let's try it follow it up you know see what [Music] happens it seems to be the right part of town but which street and which house better to ask again means Straight Ahead thanks well I I still don't know where I'm going but I will find [Music] it Ali razer's band plays [Music] illegally we walk but we don't get ahead they sing like in a cage we live imprisoned the world is turning but we are stuck balard or helicopter is the name of the band their music is available only in Canada or on the [Music] Internet it's very hard for me to to understand the two different sides I see in IR it's hard actually it's hard for us too if the music is okay so everyone should play and uh the people should vote for for good music and bad music Distortion guitars is not allowed that that's and Powerful drums are not allowed is there a like a government list of things no Distortion no wah pedals yeah like that you know [Music] we have so many fans here they never PL life with and there's no way at all you will ever get Miss too dangerous it's too [Music] dangerous hey people let's do our own thing they say in the song Miram o Miram in this world there is no space for [Music] us [Music] in the CD label you uh see not none of our faces and not uh our original names there are some nicknames like Yen ton CH and no photos of us but we have now in Facebook some of our photos in live performance so um it's a step to show our faces now the greatest thing would be to play for for our guys in ter it would be the greatest think that will could happen no I don't not in the long long [Music] time Bradley and Arash want to move on from tan the Silk Road leads straight Eastward to Afghanistan but the polos took a different way and so does Bradley I've been following the main Silk Road from tab going through Teran and then I'm actually branching off South now following like an extension of the Silk Road that connected the main Silk Road to the to the Sea the polos traveled south through the vast deserts of Iran towards the Persian Gulf their initial plan was to travel by ship to India and continue from there over land to China the truck stops on the highways are modern-day Caravan serise the Oasis of the truck drivers Arash negotiates a lift on Motorway [Music] 71 truck drivers are great this guy wasn't going our way but um yeah generally it's good lots of Short Stops we're kind of hopping in between oases which is what the people like Marco Polo and the old Caravans would have done they never went you know from one part of the continent to the other in one stretch they're always going a little little stretches so uh but yeah it's good the drivers are friendly and there's no alcohol here so there's no drink driving which is which is great you never have to wait long and if the cabin is already full people shift up to make [Music] space me Iran is the most surprising place on the trip so far it's got such a terrible reputation I told my uh wife and family I was going to Iran I'm sure they're all completely worried about me but it's been completely different from what I expected very friendly people very young lots of invitations for tea dinner it's just been the most delightful place to travel [Music] to we didn't quite get as far as the Persian Gulf it's getting late and this is one of the nicest Oasis towns of central Iran so we're going to stay here for the night Marco Polo stopped here as well he passed through almost all of the Oasis towns of the great Iranian desert they line up like beads on a string this is one of the smaller ones kashan is not exactly bustling at night but a rash and Bradley have heard about a very old and very Persian tradition the sound of prayer and recitation leads them to the zuan which literally means House of strength [Music] the athletes start by praying and reciting verses from the Persian epics the tradition reaches back into Iran's pre-islamic past the exercises begin some of them have their roots in Sufism the mystical face of Islam the aim is to maximize courage selflessness and strength in earlier times the ancient sport was a way to keep the men fit for [Music] war the Zan tradition was outlawed when Islam conquered the Persian Empire in the 7th century later it found its way into Islamic culture here is Bradley the mored the master of the group marks Rhythm and controls the pace of the exercises with clubs of different size and weight the heaviest clubs weigh 20 kilos each [Music] [Music] respect for ethical values faith in the prophet and loyalty to the imams this is what makes a true Iranian palivan today [Applause] palivan means hero as well as wrestler there is a strict hierarchy there are beginners regular Heroes strong Heroes and national heroes and even World [Applause] Heroes [Music] on the road once again through the dashy cavier the great salt [Music] desert these Craftsmen are heading for the ancient Oasis city of Yas in central Iran on their way they have business to do at the foot of these mountains the Persian canart system is 4,000 years old Marco Polo described it and here in this region lies its origin canat is an ancient drinking water channel from the foot of the mountains water is channeled underground into the oases to prevent it from evaporating or becoming polluted this a canut system made just look like a hole in the ground but really it's the it's the lifeblood of the desert without without this system of water this you know there wouldn't be these Oasis towns without the Oasis towns there wouldn't be these Trade Centers these trade routes Sil Road around here wouldn't would just would bypass it Marco po wouldn't have come down here so you've got this little hole in the ground to thank for all of that stuff almost 30,000 canards a system of 300,000 kilm provides for villages and cities in Iran to the present day hope to see you again pull some of these Kats they're 70 M deep this one's not quite that deep but still it's very small and it feels very claustrophobic but the water is crystal clear and beautifully cool it's just wonderful this is great I never thought i' be this close to a Persian [Music] canet one of the world's oldest cities its Origins stretch 7,000 years into the past the old town of yast built on sundried Clay a Labyrinth of narrow streets above the rooftops Loom bad gears wind catchers which are cooling down the Blazing Midsummer heat the city's Skyline didn't look very different when Marco Polo was here he would certainly have seen the Friday mosque it remains in place although its appearance was altered in the 14th century some 100 years after Marco Polo [Music] it's richly adorned interior is vaulted by a self-supporting Dome the technique of constructing such domes was first invented by Persian Master [Music] Builders you can imagine you being on a caravan through the desert for several days as you see this blue the the portals of the mosques you see the tall minettes from from probably 2 days before you even get there and you come in and you've got cool water you've got running streams you've got these bad gears which bring all the cold air it's very an oasis of sophistication for for travelers they'd have been very glad to to pull into to YZ for sure in his book a travel log entitled the wonders of the world World Marco Polo writes yasdi also is properly in Persia it is a good and Noble City and has a great amount of trade they weave their quantities of a certain silk tissue known as yasdi which Merchants carry into many quarters to dispose of this I think is the ter broade that the city is is well was famous for so it'll be interesting to head down into the bazaar you see this line of of Domes or kopas that's the that's the roof of the bizaar so it'll be interesting to head down there see if they still sell this after good 700 years since Marco Polo was [Music] here for 2,000 years henna has been ground in the Mills of Yas in former days they were powered by camels in a Persian bizaar craft and trade lie side by side the silk tissue described by Mark Polo was in great demand in Venice by the rich and [Music] beautiful the material embroidered with Gold and Silver Thread was called Bato by the merchants of Venice meaning embroidery this stuff is is brocade there's different types there's the silk tissue there's the brocade and the cloth and this stuff would have been traded up and down the Silk Road it was a high high value low weight commodity so would have been traded all the way through to Venice where I'm sure this would have been on for sale somewhere in the Rialto Square and some Venetian Prince probably a relative Marco Polo would have bought some at some point the neighborhood of alabad at the edge of the city almost all houses around here have been abandoned seems like this place is completely deserted once yasd was the center of Zoroastrianism the ancient Persian religion its God was worshiped in the form of fire only very few fire worshippers are left here Farah and her husband Banu are the last ones in this road all their children and grandchildren have moved away most of them to America Bradley understands others to Canada and tyan today the zoroastrians are scattered all over the world Arash tries to find reasons for the decline of the religion in its country of origin most of the people here were farmers says Banu as water has become increasing in L expensive many zoroastrians moved away from originally 500 people in this quarter there are just 10 left the Islamic Republic of Iran granted them the status of a protected religious minority nevertheless zoroastrians feel marginalized yeah yes was uh is really the heartland of of the Zoro EST community in Iran and and pretty much in the world since and they've there's a lot of moved away to India where they the FY you know FY Community um but yeah it's it's in its heart in this in the Islamic Republic of Iran there's not much space left for for Zoro [Music] estrian not far from Farah's house is the small neighborhood Temple the deity Aura Mazda is worshiped in the form of a flame between 1,00 and 1500 BC zoroaster founded his religion as the first monotheistic religion of [Music] [Music] humanity yeah 186 seats just a handful of uh zor asrian left it feels like a the last echo of a disappearing religion to me on the southern edge of the city the towers of silence for the fire worshippers of Yas the final resting place this is where the zor estrian come to dispose of their bodies they believe that burying them in the ground is is polluting the Earth so the bodies would have been laid here cut up and then left for the sun and the vultures and the bones would have fallen down into this hole in the 1970s this type of burial was forbidden nowadays the Youth of the city meet at the towers of silence for Motocross do you guys know that this is a arrian graveyard would you do the same thing if this was an Islamic [Music] [Music] graveyard Bradley and Arash want to go further south this time they've decided to hire a car which in Iran can be found at any Street Corner another class ride as you can see this is a payan car Iran's national car designs hardly changed in 45 years but uh hopefully it'll get us through the desert let's go Marco Polo about 750 years ago Marco Polo together with his father and Uncle must have passed by here somewhere they needed to cross cross these mountains but which route did they take exactly one of the easiest Crossings where there there habitation mhm so we I'm pretty sure he would have gone on either of these two routes well we we could take the highway and we down be down on the coast in about 4 hours but we're going to make life difficult for ourselves and try and take one of these Mountain paths and try and match the topography with Mar well this is what traveling is all about for me tracking down routes places doing some Detective work digging around a little bit asking people about what they know about the route this is what Guri writing is and this is this is right up my street it's [Music] great Bradley and Arash have left the desert Plains behind [Music] them now they are looking for a way through the mountains that separate the desert from the Persian Gulf silent witnesses to the Silk Road line the [Music] route deserted oases the ruins of caravaner [Music] eyes almost like a modern-day travel guide the Venetian writes of Wells provision points and places to sleep along the route to the Persian [Music] Gulf he also points out goods and resources along the Route rare Metals for instance Marco Polo mentions veins of iron from which a highgrade steel was smelted to forge swords armor and shields information on such commodities was of great strategic value at the time still today this part of Iran is well known for Mining and smelting this is very impressive you can feel the heat on your face you can smell the chemicals in the air this is exactly what Marco Polo was writing about when he talked about the heavy metals in the area the iron the copper he even talks about smelting and furnaces so uh yeah we were lucky we just bumped into this it's just by the side of the road just fits in [Music] [Applause] [Music] perfectly apart from Metals he also reports on the murderous black Bandits of these mountains the karunas you see someone trying to flag us down just keep going straight okay don't stop you can see we're now descending down to the coastal plains this is where Marco Polo writes about the karuna this kind of strange half Mongol half Bui uh collection of Bandits he reckons 10,000 Bandits Ro this area and had the ability to create this black fog over the whole kind of plane here and then they would come across and pick up anybody they could find sell them into slavery or kill them [Music] where the mountains dropped to the Sea lies AR rash and Bradley's destination in the Middle Ages the Old Port of humus was located somewhere here the polos were planning to travel by ship to India and to get from there to China there's not much left just a narrow waterway uh a few down it's just a faint Echo really of what what Marco Polo would have seen when he came here Dows the Arabian Coastal vessels are still at anchor and dates are loaded as in earlier days Marco PO says their ships are wretched Affairs and many of them get lost and then he goes on to say hence is a perilous business to go on a voyage in one of these ships and many of them are lost for in that sea of India the storms are often terrible so when Marco Pell came here he was far from impressed with the quality of the boats but looking at them here they're not modern boats but they're they're in good shape they look pretty good for a sea Crossing so the ones Marco Polo must have seen I mean he was a Venetian he knew his boats why in the end didn't Marco Polo borders ship to India why did he reject his initial plan perhaps the clue lies on a small offshore island in the Persian [Music] Gulf in the 2,000-year-old city of lft the old wooden cargo vessels are still being constructed to this day his day begins in the mosque AI sakaria Safari has sailed on Dows as far as India and East Africa nobody knows more about Dows and their construction after working as a captain for more than 40 years he now runs his own Shipyard today the sailing vessels are equipped with diesel engines but they still sail the coastal Waters of the Indian [Music] perhaps [ __ ] Safari can explain why Marco Polo didn't trust the Arabic sailing vessels Arash asks about the differences between the Dows of the Middle Ages and the Dows of today I mean haj's boats look great I mean they're really really well made first class but you can imagine 700 years ago and they were held together with bits of coconut rope and and fish Fat that they probably looked pretty bad um to to Marco Polo's eyes and I mean this was a serious decision for Marco Polo this is the real hinge point of his trip a real pivotal moment and these boats he must have thought these boats were really awful to to choose this unknown route through the deserts of Asia rather than this Maritime route to uh to India my own personal Theory maybe he just got here and he was told you know 6 months until the monsoon winds come you got to sit here in the B 45° heat for for the next 6 months and he just went no way I can't take it I'd rather go through the deserts and and see what happens there a rash flies back to tyan and Bradley Mayu like Marco Polo will continue his journey to China Overland space for one one M Bradley is now heading Northeast it takes 1,000 km to cross through the largest of the Iranian deserts the dashed [Music] OT any transport is welcome as long as it comes hi honey it's me and how things at home y oh great that's good Afghanistan is next yeah I know I'm I'm going to take care don't worry yeah I should be crossing over the Border in a day or two yeah I thanks [Music] so [Music] for

Channel: TRACKS - Travel Documentaries

Views: 143,263

Keywords: Eastern culture, Marco Polo Reloaded, Marco Polo documentary, Marco Polo exploration, Persia journey, Persian art and culture, Silk Road journey, Tabriz architecture, adventure documentary series, backpacking adventure, cultural diversity, cultural heritage, documentary films, exploring ancient cities, hidden gems, historical architecture, travel adventure, travel discovery, travel enthusiasts community, travel insights

Id: Mb9ZHYVOL58

Length: 52min 42sec (3162 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024