Northeastern Iran - Iran - page 489

Semani Coffeenet ( 333 8010; internet per hr US$1; 8am-10pm Sun-Wed, to 8pm
Thu) Separate male and female sections.
Semnan Miras ( 332 1602; www.semnanmiras.ir ; Tadayon House, Taleqani St, btwn
3rd & 5th Alleys; 8am-2.30pm Sun-Wed, to 1.30pm Thu) They speak minimal English
but offer bilingual pamphlets and Farsi-only maps from a lovely Qajar-era mansion with
Semnan's finest surviving wind tower.
Getting There & Away
The main bus terminal is 3km west of Sa'di Sq, 100m beyond Imam Hossein Sq. Between
5.30am and midnight, buses leave every half hour or so for Tehran (US$2 to US$3, three
hours). Taavoni 2 has a 6am bus to Mashhad (US$6, 11 hours) and a 7am service to Sari
(US$1, four hours) via Kiyasar, passing through seasonally beautiful valleys full of sun-
flowers. For savaris to Tehran (US$4, two hours), sign up at a special office in the termin-
al.
To Damghan, hourly buses (US$1, three hours) use a terminal 100m south of Standard
Sq (3km east of the centre). The last is at 6pm. Savaris leave more conveniently from
Mashahir Sq.
For Shahmirzad via Mahdishahr, minibuses (US$0.50) and savaris (US$0.50, 25
minutes) start from Mo'allem Sq.
Three Mashhad-Tehran trains (stopping at Semnan) and two Semnan-Tehran local ser-
vices (three hours) operate daily. The train station is 1.5km south of Imam Khomeini Sq.
Around Semnan
CARAVANSERAIS
Several partly renovated caravanserais lie close to the main Mashhad-Tehran highway
either side of town, notably at Lasjerd (36km west) and Ahowan (42km east).
MAHDISHAHRرهشيدهم
0232 / POP 22,000
Sprawling in arid rocky folds, Mahdishahr (16km from Semnan) is dominated by the im-
pressive if mostly contemporary blue-domed Al-Mahdi Hosseinieh . The town's other
notable building is the 40-year-old Kakh Palace, now used as the remarkably good-value