A local form of wrestling, koshti bachukeh is popular across the region, but every year, two weeks after Noruz, the year's championship comes to a conclusion in the gladiators' pit that is Esfarayen's Godeh Zeynalkhan Amphitheatre, with its steep-raked step-seating and curiously desolate location pressing against the nearby badlands.
Koshti Bachukeh
Iran
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2.92 MILES
This simple, domed building, with three arched porches at both sides, sits in a lonely field with a few wizened trees 1.3km from Belqays. Up close it's…
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With nearly 30 towers and a partial restoration of the imposing 11m-high north wall, Belqays citadel is one of Iran's most visually impressive mud…
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By the roadside in this low-rise farming village, the extensive, partly crenellated mud-walled citadel here is less impressive than Belqays – but has more…
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Backed by a rocky crag, Roein's old section is a stepped village of high, porch-fronted traditional homes, looking rather like a less verdant version of…