A Little History

Qazvin is a city about 150 kilometers northwest of Tehran. The name may be a variation on “Caspian” as it lies at the junction of several roads leading to that region through the easiest pass across the Alborz Mountains. It was the capital of Iran for about forty years in the 1500s, and several sophisticated, traditional Iranian dishes attributed to Qazvin are thought to have originated in the kitchens of its royal court. The region is also renowned for its almonds, raisins, and other dried fruit, The photograph here was taken in Takestan, a small village near Qazvin, surrounded by vines and orchards. It shows grapes spread out in a field as they are dried into raisins by the sun.