Shush

Shush 12th and 13th October 2010

On October 11th I took a night bus from Shiraz to Ahvaz an unattractive industrial city in Khouzestan a province bordering Iraq. It’s tourism slogan is “Antique places, natural wonders and Holy Defence” referring to the Iraq-Iran war from 1980-88.
But an hour from Ahvaz is Shush the ancient Susa the Persian winter capital during the Persepolis time.
While not as impressive as Persepolis itself it is an historic place and nearby are even remains of a past further back. Near Shush is the former Elamite city of Dur Untash. A mighty ziggurat had been build here in 1200 BC that still looks impressive despite being partly destroyed. You wouldn’t believe it’s 3200 years old from the bricks that look like they’ve been put there 50 years ago.

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view over Shush

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The remains of Susa

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To protect themselves from marauding Arabs French archaeologists build this fort in the 1870s

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And Shush has the shrine of Daniel (the one form the lion den)

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The next day I went to Dur Untash

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A model of the ziggurat in the museum

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and the original

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Every tenth row of bricks has the WIDMUNG of the king who build it.

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A more than 3000 years old footprint

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My taxi driver Hejat was quite annoying always asking me for more gifts even after I have given him a postcard and a pen. He was bragging about these other tourists who had given him so many presents. “One Holland man he gave me one shirt and one short. You have short?” :rolleyes:

In the afternoon I came back to Ahvaz where I realized that the ticket for the bus to Bandar Abbas for the evening was actually issued for the morning bus despite what the seller had told me. At least I got half of the 150,000 Rials back and could take a bus an hour later thus starting my worst bus trip yet.
For some reason the first row of seats directly behind the driver are considered the best seats and as a foreign guest I was put in one of them. Unfortunately there’s a barrier in front of them which means you can’t really move your feet or legs and therefore these are actually the worst seats in the entire bus. So I couldn’t spread my legs once in the 17 (!!) hours drive and hardly slept. Horrible.

During one of the breaks on of my fellow passengers had asked where I was going and in the morning when the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere he dragged me along to get me to Qeshm Island. There was even a taxi waiting for us and we took a small open fibre glass boat to the Island. After a 2 hour taxi ride to Qeshm Town I checked in the Diplomat Hotel, 21 hours after I left from Ahvaz.