Shiraz to Esfahan (and back again) _ Iran

A statue of the homa, a Zoroastrian mythical being, in Persepolis

text and photography by XERXES COOK

 

I’ve always had some anxiety about the journey to Iran. Not because I’m a stranger, but because this place is half of me, and we know each other too well. My mother has been dragging me to Shiraz my whole life. When I was a kid, I loved it, chasing snakes around the garden with my cousins. As a teenager, I grew to resent being here on my summer holidays, as I imagined my friends chasing girls in bikinis on Mediterranean beaches. The last time I was here, seven years ago, I cursed my luck at the timing, just days after I had met Erika, the girl who would later be my wife.

Yet this trip will be different. Erika is coming with me, and it will be…