By Ali Parandeh
September 1997
The Iranian

It is not everyday I get to leave Tehran, our crazy polluted capital city. But every now and then the chance comes along.

"Vahshi" A place that not even us Iranians know about, or very few of us do. I don't blame them too much neither.

A couple of my friends who work at the French Embassy phoned me last Sunday and asked if I would like to go on an excursion to a place called "Alexander's Passage". Apparently when Alexander the Great conquered Iran, he came through this passage and there is a related carving on the side of the mountain. Unfortunately, I don't know the history of it so well. I am trying to track it down - maybe some of you have better knowledge.

We set out on a Saturday morning, driving east on the Sadr Highway, toward Damavand. Just before Damavand, we took the road for Firouzkouh. It was a nice day, partly cloudy with a nice breeze. The road was fairly quiet, which meant we didn't have to put up with any crazy drivers.

Just before arriving at Firouzkouh, there was a welcome sign on the left, and a newly built road. We took the road up to Dehin village. About four km up the road, we took a right turn which took us to a small, forgot-the-name village. Under normal circumstances we could have driven through the village but the road was under construction so we had to park and walk five km to the bottom of the mountain.

The walk wasn't too hard. The sun was just right and with the cool September breeze, we managed to get there in about an hour. Once we got to the mountain, we had no choice but to go into the river. The carving is inside a gorge and underneath it is the river. There is no other path. So up went the trousers and we went into the river. The water was absolutely freezing and nearly up to our knees, so one wrong move and the river would have taken us all the way back to the the village.

The carving is about 50 meters up the passage. One of the farmers said we were lucky that we could enter it, because there was not much rain this year. But usually there is so much water that one would be crazy to make an attempt. For us there was no problem. Was managed to get to the carving in five minutes. It is a five-meter-by-five-meter carving on the side of the gorge, approximately two meters above the river bed. Within the carving you see men on horses with guns and arrows. In the middle there is a signature, "(Something) Qajar," referring to the period I imagine.

Having gone through all this to get to see this, we decide to continue up the river. Behind the mountain we came up to some farm lands, which we crossed only to reach a second gorge. Back into the freezing river again and another 15 minutes of nearly freezing temperatures. We finally stopped in the middle of the gorge. The river was to steep and we were not far from the top of the mountain. So we sat near a cave and had lunch. Good salami, tuna, French cheese, and a homemade salad, plus of course, the fresh cold water from the river. The sun was about to set, so we had to pack up and leave. The temperature dropped really fast in the shade.

On the way back, one of us had the unfortunate luck of slipping and falling into the river. Luckily for him a nearby farmer came over and offered him a lift on his donkey. We wrapped him up in what ever we had to keep him warm and sent him back to the village with the farmer.

5 pm. We drove back to our crazy city.