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| Mt. Sabalon, Iran's 3rd highest mountain and a quiet volcano |
What a fascinating day! We left our dismal hotel in Ardabil (the Sabalon--I won't document it's deficiencies because you can read all about them in TripAdvisor's reviews) to drive to Tabriz, across the Agorz Mountains and the high plateau of Eastern Azerbaijan Province. This area is populated by Azeri farmers who live in mud brick villages (with some newer homes of concrete, much less picturesque and, I'm sure, much more comfortable than the mud brick buildings). It is a volcanic area with Iran's 3rd highest peak, Mt. Sabalon, towering over the plain.
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| village house with hay on roof and cowpies nearby for fuel |
The farmers bale the chaff from their wheat into hay to feed their animals in the winter. To keep it dry in this harsh climate, they pile the bales on their roofs, which also serves as insulation in the cold months, before the sheep and cattle consume it. Quite a creative solution to 3 problems, hay storage, insulation and feed for animals.
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| village men with our driver, Ali |
We left the highway to drive along a rutted track into one of the villages so I could photograph the hay on the roofs. It turned out to be much more interesting than just a couple of photo opportunities. As I keep saying, everywhere we go in Iran, people are so welcoming. In this village, the men wanted me to photograph them with our gregarious driver, Ali. They shook our hands and said, "welcome to Iran" over and over.
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| village women outside house |
The village is mostly crumbly mud brick houses with a shiny mosque and some large concrete houses built recently by the more wealthy farmers. The women make patties out of the cow dung, just like women in India do, for fuel. It works, but it's pretty fragrant. Outside the homes are huge piles of dried cow patties.
Here the women don't wear the chador. They wear long skirts with blouses and jackets and head scarves. Instead of black, they wear colors. As we walked around the village, we found a truck parked near the mosque, full of clothes, food and other household items. The merchant travels between villages, parks and sells his goods. Some of the village women were there inspecting his wares.
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| woman at itinerant shop |
The farmers harvest their wheat by hand and haul it to one of many threshers spread out across the plain. The threshers are stationary. The grain comes out a chute at one end, while the chaff falls to the ground and is raked up to bale into hay.
Farther along the highway, we found a very large animal market in progress. We have seen these markets in Kashgar, in far western China, and in western Kyrgyzstan. The Kashgar market is a major tourist attraction for those who venture into that part of Xinjiang Province, along the ancient Silk Road. This market was just as large--and completely unknown outside this area.
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| Bahreman Thursday animal market |
This market is mostly a cattle market, but there were sheep also. In another large area, men sold everything from wrenches to saddles. Other men cooked hot meals for the buyers and sellers. I was the only woman among the several thousand people there.
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| buffalo cow and calf |
This is not animal heaven. Calves are separated from their mothers way too early, so some of the cows were dripping milk from their udders because they needed to have their calves nurse. Animals are loaded and unloaded into the backs of trucks with no regard for the bumps and bruises they receive in the process. They are packed in as tightly as the new owner can manage. Everyone in the vicinity comes over to help load the small trucks.
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| loading calf into truck |
Besides cattle, there were quite a few buffalo and even one pathetic little donkey trying to get away from the large cow it was tied to and a horse high up in a truck with no loading ramp. Can't imagine how it got up there. There is also a produce market where men were selling vegetables including huge squash, kohlrabi, tomatoes, onions and potatoes.
In the animal area, men were haggling over the price of the animals they were buying and selling. Others were counting money. Some were sitting on the ground talking. Clearly this is a major weekly event, on Thursdays, the day before the Muslim holy day of Friday. In Iran, the weekend is Thursday and Friday.
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| sheep market |
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| counting money at Bahreman market |
We stopped for lunch at a town a little farther
up the highway. We've found the roadside restaurants are very good. The menu is not varied, but the food is delicious. I particularly love the homemade yoghurt. These restaurants are all family-owned and everyone in the family participates in some way. Next door was a bakery. We walked in to see the local bread and left with 4 loaves of bread. The owner wouldn't take our money. It was his gift to us.
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local bread
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car parts for sale at Bahreman market
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