Western Iran - Iran - page 279

the site can get crowded and messy with rubbish but several long-distance paths lead dir-
ectly up the peaceful fore-slopes of Mt Alvand making for relatively convenient yet bra-
cing hikes.
A narrow lane continues 4km to the Tarik Dare ski slopes ( Thu & Fri winter) and in
summer a road winds on very attractively right across Mt Alvand's lower slopes to Osht-
oran near Tuyserkan).
Getting There & Away
Shared taxis (US$1) take about 20 minutes departing from Shari'ati St near the Esther and
Mordecai Tomb. They're fairly frequent at weekends, but midweek you'll probably have
to charter (from US$4 each way). Finding a ride back can take a while.
THE LORS OF LORESTAN
Call them Lurish, Lori or Lor, these proud people (around 2% of Iran's population) are best known to Westerners for
the magnificent bronze-crafts of their hazily documented Kassite forebears. Around 1800 BC, these polytheistic
horse-breeding warriors were pushing forward the boundaries of metallurgical technology, casting exquisite bronzes
whose fine decoration belies their often mundane purposes.
The Lurish golden age was destroyed by centuries of medieval wars that wiped out virtually all settled agricul-
ture. Lorestan lapsed into lawless nomadic 'backwardness' such that the Lors, like many Kurds, remained predom-
inantly semi-independent nomads until well into the 20th century. In 1931 the valiant Freya Stark considered
Lorestan to be the 'wastes of civilisation' as she risked brigands, bandits and police ire seeking ancient gravesites
from which to procure Lurish bronzes. Today admiring such bronzes is much easier thanks to Khorramabad's un-
missable eight-towered fortress called Falak-ol-Aflak , or Tehran's National Museum of Iran ( Click here ) and
Reza Abbasi Museum ( Click here ).
The Lori language is a dialect based on Old Persian with additions from Arabic and modern Farsi. A handy greet-
ing is damaqechaqı (are you well?); 'delicious' is tomdara.
Dorud & Lake Gaharدورود
0665 / POP 103,000 / ELEV 1448M
Dominated by a huge, satanic cement factory, Dorud is useful as a launching point for
hiking to beautiful, mountain-ringed Lake Gahar , famed for its succulent qizil arla fish.
The trailhead is Haft Cheshmeh , a lonely refuge hut, car park and drinking-water spring
23km from Dorud. In midsummer guides and ponies are usually available here. The trek