Yep, the southern coast of Iran is definitely worth visiting. Khuzestan in the SW of the country has some nice small towns (Shush, Dezful, Shushtar etc), and some pretty amazing history. The Elamite Ziggurat of Choqa Zanbil is worth a detour by anyone, as is Shush, the old Achamenid winter capital where I believe Alexander the Great met his end.





In the far SE of the country, Sistan and Baluchestan Province has the other-worldly rock formations of the Makran, and endless, deserted beaches. There are also ports full of friendly Pakistani fishermen on wooden boats, who come from Karachi and surroundings. Some are Sheedis, a minority of Afro-Pakistanis from Sindh Province...







Bandar-e Abbas is really nothing to write home about (though nearby Minab is very interesting, and the scenery around Jask is nice), but the real highlight for me was taking the car ferry to Qeshm, the largest island in the Persian Gulf, where there is the beautiful Gulf port of Bandar-e Laft. There are also mangrove swamps, caves and salt glaciers elsewhere on the island.





And of course, the way of life is slow and relaxed, and the people, even by Iranian standards, are very kind and welcoming. Few people make the effort to explore the south (because so many people make the mistake of coming to Iran in the middle of summer when the south is almost unbearably hot), but there is a lot to see...

Happy travels,

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.