The Quartz Page: Travels

last modified: Tuesday, 26-May-2009 03:45:40 CEST

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.
Mark Twain

Here I've just compiled a few of the more interesting photos I shot during my travels. Some of the spots I've visited are unknown to most people.

This is a construction site.

Just pics.
Annotations will slowly be added.

Iran

All images have been shot in April 2005.

Tehran

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Tehran seen from a plane approaching Mehr Abad International Airport. The view is directed northward to the snow-covered Alborz mountain range. In the foreground you see western central Tehran, where low- to medium-income people live. The large street is Navab Shavavi Highway. When the street got broadened, town planers jumped at the chance to increase the housing space and better the infrastructure for the ever growing population, so the street is bordered by multistory buildings with flats.

The city center lies a few kilometers east (at the right side) of the highway, the airport is a few kilometers to the west, still well inside the city.

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A northward view from our hotel room, shot in the morning. The overall impression of the city building style is very European or Mediterranean, much more than American cities, for example.

Tehran proper counts about 9 million people, larger Tehran with its ring of cities about 14 million. At daytime, about 2-3 million commuters enter the city, mostly by car. So one of the greatest problems of the city is air pollution. Immediately after we left the plane, I noticed the strong smell of exhaust gases. Before I came here I didn't know what smog is like.

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The city is creeping uphill, escaping the smog. The image has been taken from an altitude of 2430 m. The snow-covered mountains in the distance are more than 4000 m high.

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Esfahan

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Naqsh-i Jahan Square (Wikipedia), now named Meidan Emam, is one of the world's largest city squares. The square and its buildings have all been planned and built in the early 17th century under Shah Abbas I in just about 30 years. It has a rectangular shape and measures about 500 by 150 meters. It is surrounded by two-storied arcades that are now used by artisan bazaar shops.

In the evening families join for a picnic on the grass.

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Atashgah of Esfahan, on a limestone hill west of the city.

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Tea-house inside Si-O-Seh Pol Bridge.

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Khaju Bridge at night.

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The dome of the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, completed 1619 A.D.

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The ceiling of the dome of the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque.

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Hasht Behesht ("Eight Paradises") Palace.

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The Countryside

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U.S.A.

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Rockaway Beach, Pacifica, California.

March 2005

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Granite boulders at Lake Tahoe, Sierra Nevada.

March 2005

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Downtown San Francisco, seen from Treasure Island.

April 2005

Other Places

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Rhone, Rhone glacier and Furka street at Gletsch, Wallis, Switzerland. The large building at the top right is the hotel Belvedere.

August 2007

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A Mediterranean village at the "blue hour". Villages are agrarian economies and need to optimize land use, in particular in adverse natural environments, so they tend to be densely packed and do not sprawl out into the surrounding landscape, as cities do. This is the village of Gairo in the Ogliastra, eastern Sardegna, Italy.

March 2007

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Punta La Marmora, 1834 m, Gennargentu, central Sardegna, Italy. The snow will be gone in June.

March 2007

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View of holiday homes in a high valley above Skjeggedal. The Folgefonna ice cap in the distance lies at the other side of the Sørfjorden that is hidden by the green mountain to the right. Odda, Hordaland, Southern Norway.

August 2005

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The eastern end of the Ringedalsvatnet, an artificial lake in a U-shaped valley carved out by glaciers. Odda, Hordaland, Southern Norway.

August 2005

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Odda, Hordaland, Southern Norway.

August 2005

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Halletgrøna lake, 1263 m, Odda, Hordaland, Southern Norway. The absence of familiar objects makes it very difficult to estimate distances. The opposite shore is 1 kilometer away.