FINALIST IN TRAVEL AT THE 14th NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS (USA), 2020 THE first thing I saw at the border was a man’s butt as he stuffed smuggled cigarettes down his trousers. I met prostitutes whose profession was sanctioned as temporary marriage by clerics. I was offered alcohol and all the drugs under the sun in the north, and saw illegal pubs with people drinking. And I saw the most fabulous crown jewels and palaces anywhere. All this I experienced travelling overland and learning tips to pass on to you. I saw Tehran, the Shah’s Golestan Palace, Persepolis, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Yazd. Many women took their hijabs off whenever they could, and people played music under the bridges of Isfahan. I discovered the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism and visited its funeral towers where the dead were laid out to be eaten by vultures. These were near the Star Wars-like desert city of Yazd, where wind towers drew cool air through underground caverns to air-condition the houses of hundreds of years ago. I went mountaineering and saw old mosques and palaces and cafes lined with smashed mirrors and others with stained glass. That’s how the author, Mary Jane Walker, sums up the adventures and cultural experiences that this book relates, with photos and maps.