Mountains and Shepherds

Alborz Mountains from the hotel

Zagros Mountains from our bus

There are two main sets of mountains in Iran: the Alborz in the northern part of the country separating the Caspian Sea from Tehran and the Zagros running down the western side of the country, the side closest to Iraq. This first photo was taken from the window of my hotel room in Tehran, looking north to the mountains.

Traveling through snow-capped Zagros mountains on our way to Takht-e Soleiman and ultimately to Tabriz, we ran into a large number of sheep, sheep dogs, and shepherds. We stopped the bus and had a wonderful photo fest.

We regularly saw herds of goats and sheep as we drove throughout the countryside. It is understandable given that lamb is the most commonly found meat on an Iranian table—and we ate a lot of it. The wool is also used in weaving carpets. But more on that later.