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Friday 2004-06-04 - Rāyen, Iran
Bam in miniature
Originally, an excursion to Bam was on the program for today but since the earthquake last December that’s obviously off: we’re not into ‘disaster tourism’, the citadel is practically destroyed for now (we saw some shocking before-and-after photographs) and anyway we’d just be in the way while they’re rebuilding.
Instead, we go to Rāyen, a much smaller town south of Kermān, with a citadel much in the style of Bam, though naturally also much smaller. As with historical sites all over Iran, they’re busily restoring it. The outer wall, seemingly in good shape anyway, is fully reconstructed — using fired brick where the mud brick was missing in a few places — and the public-facing walls are already nicely plastered again. Inside there are several buildings; the restoration of the castle is also well advanced (the living spaces in the same style as the historical houses we saw in Kāshān), as is a small mosque. Elsewhere, only the outlines of buildings are indicated with low mud-plastered walls. At some unfinished buildings it’s interesting to be able to see how a domed roof is constructed on a square plan with nothing but adobe brick.
Many tours that would originally have gone to Bam are now coming here but Rāyen hasn’t quite adapted yet — but maybe they don’t want to? Apparently most tour buses just go up to the gate of the citadel and leave immediately after the visit. We go in search of a cup of tea instead but we can’t find a cup of tea anywhere in the village (rare in Iran) but a bottle of Iranian Cola and some chairs the shop owner lends us to sit on makes up for that — we even get some bread with it. A little farther on we find a simple but beautiful shrine in a small building with a nicely-tiled dome. Then it’s time to leave.
