Sang-e Shir is a walrus-sized lump of rock eroded beyond recognition by the rubbing of hands over 2300 years. It was supposedly once a lion, but you’d never look twice at it were it not the only surviving ‘monument’ from the ancient city of Ecbatana, whose gates it once guarded.
Local legend attaches all manner of significance to this strangely unmoving lump. It's said to have been erected by Alexander the Great to commemorate the death of his lover Hephaistion, but bizarrely it now has supposed magic powers to make women pregnant!
