The Daily Telegraph du lieu suivant : London, Greater London, England • 12

12 rfte Oay Telegraph Saturday January 29 1977 -1 HEAD FOR ASIA Seeing Far left th dccoraHvji architecture of Teheran'i Colestart Pa lie 'picture! DOUGLAS DICKINS) near left a Turkish tee break (picture: RUFUS) More tourists are visiting Persia's treasures -by mirrors SKUKUZA (Kmger National Rdc) and HLUHLUWE (Home of theWhite Rhino) and TABLE MOUNTAIN (Capetown) than ever before All these places are in SOUTH AFRICA A WORLD TOUR IN ONE COUNTRY For information contact disinterested Perhaps ha senses that we are not ofi his faith But we are riveted when he leads us inside Another vastly different showpiece on the island is the Hotel Dar Jerba a huge complex of four hotels each with its own 300 bungalows in four categories: standard semi-luxury luxury and super-luxury They have their own banks doctors dentists business services four swimming pools countless restaurants night-clubs discotheques and games rooms and each bungalow is itself enclosed in apd-vate patio abloom with flowers All this you will enjdy vastly if it is your scene and you don't particularly want to meet the Tunisians though this is a pity for they are charming people You can fly to Jerba from London stopping for a few hours in Tunis and this will give you an opportunity both to go round the city and to see the the ty white washed town of Sidi Bou Said Here the houses perched high TURKEY COAST STILL UNSPOILT Island full of surprises satour South Afiicanlburist Corporation Dept DTe 291 13 Lower Regent Street London SWiY4LRTelephone 01-839 7462 CAN you imagine officials of the Bank of England wearing nothing but embroidered knee length breeches swinging 601b Indian clubs ifl time to a drumbeat accompanied by a religious chant? Maybe not but that is just what happens in the sports club of the State Bank of Persia Anyone can attend their Zurkhaneh or House of Strength A dozen athletes gather in a circular pit the gowd and are controlled by the Morshed a senior member who chants from a pulpit high above The athletes limber up with press-ups then proceed to feats of strength and skill including juggling with the heavy mils shaking the 501b kabadeh or iron and chains above their heads and wind up whirling round like dervishes A gentler sight is the Crown Jewels displayed in 37 cases in a bank vault like a museum To say they are fabulous would be an understatement they are the backing for 60 per cent of the currency One item alone a globe of solid gold weighing 801b is encrusted with 51366 jewels outlining the countries of the world Teheran's latest attraction is the Shahyad a triumphal arch at a traffic roundabout containing a sound and light show which you view from moving walkways These carry you through successive rooms covered from floor to ceiling with multiple mirrors on which are projected constantly changing images of scenery ancient monuments tile patterns Persian miniatures the Royal family and modern Iran It is a spectacular show The Shah's Golestan Palace now used only for State guests has a grand staircase lined with mirrors leading to the throne room where the throne stands in an alcove of mirrors dazzling in their reflections of the chandeliers In the gardens among pine trees and pools the Ethnological Museum displays wax models of everyday scenes with costumes showing the variety of tribes -in this on the hill look down on the panorama of Tunis Each little sloping alleyway in Sidi Bou Said has its narrow glimpse of the sea and the Moorish houses are much as they were centuries ago except that the pressure of tourism means that they are always freshly-painted in their traditional white and blue and the souks are full of desirable souvenirs like white painted bird-cages and colourful djellabas It would be a pity to leave Tunis without seeing the famous oasis of Gabes and it is not far from Jerba This is where the arid land suddenly and unexpectedly gives way to a cool and green world of palms and water flowers and lush grass For information about Tunis contact the Tunisian Tourist Office at 7A Stafford Street London Wl Most of the major package holiday firms run holidays to Jerba Tunis and other holiday centres at prices from just over £100 for a full-ooard fortnight in the spring season are splendid You sleep in charming spacious chalets Bored with swimming you can take a boat across to places such as Yassus and like me lunch with the boatman and his family in their island home squatting on a mat under a fig tree and dipping into a pan of fried eggs and a bowl of olives Boats are a way of life and two or three days spent sailing up the ancient ceramic gulf of Gokova with its deep translucent waters is an experience One scallops around quiet wooded bays and islands now and then spearing an octopus or catching a fish for dinner putting into still moorings to sleep Shopping is fun and different: ropes of deep Turkish blue beads special Bodrum sandals flowered scarves and you can get a pair of Shalvars (Turkish trousers) that look every bit as chic as those Saint Laurent and ap showed whipped up overnight for £3 At present this part of Turkey is reachable only on individual packages such as Executive Travel's fly-and-drive series One of their itineraries gives four nights in Bodrum out of two weeks costing from £352 ALONG the tun-drenched extreme south-west corner of Turkey where the Aegean and Mediterranean meet lies a beautiful unspoilt coast a world of tranquil mountain -ringed harbours tiny bays small colourful villages almost unknown to the British tt The little port of Bodrum Is utterly enchanting Two tiny main streets where the blue handmade beads and flower-edged scarves flutter outside the shops thread behind the waterfront There Is a sprinkling of boutiques bars and eating places brilliantly trousered peasant women sit behind their piles of fruit in the market place fishing boats bring in their catch and sandal-makers hammer far into the night There are only two small but good hotels but it is better and cheaper to stay at a pension such as the spotless Evin (where bed and breakfast costs £2) or with a Turkish family as I did Just over 'the hills from Bodrum on the Mandalya Gulf the Hotel at Gulluk sits on the edge of a gentle beach The evening I arrived the water whispered at my feet and a full moon filtered through the olive trees above my table The food and service under the watchful eye of Semih the young German-trained manager TOURISTS are few in Tunis in early November But the sun is shining and the long golden beaches are empty The land belongs to the people now especially down on that detached little island of Jerba that sits like an afterthought just off the bottom of the east coast In Jerba after the season is over there are more date palms than people It has not always been a tranquil land The Phoenicians the Romans the Arabs and even the Knights of Malta fought their battles here and there are many reminders of those days One of the more surprising aspects of Jerba today is the sizeable Jewish community descendants of those who escaped the terrors of Nebuchadnezzar Here is pehaps the only synagogue in the world which is a place of pilgrimage If you knock on the big stout door of his house the old rabbi will come out to unlock the synagogue across the narrow alley He is old and stout and his manner is laconic even Fly South African Airways 747 Super 'B'every day of the week By Douglas Dickins country three times the size of France From Teheran it is only a 30-minute flight to the 17th-century Isfahan of Shah Abbas or 60 minutes to Shiraz city of flowers nightingales and wine An hour's drive beyond Shiraz and you step back 2500 years in the Palace of Darius at Persepolis Here I stayed in the new Darius Hotel its gardens an oasis of green in the dusty desert a mile from the palace At Shiraz Persia's two greatest poets Sa'adi and Hafez are honoured with pillared mausoleums set in perfect gardens The Vakil Bazar is brightened by the gay colours and full skirts of the nomadic Qashqai women who weave in their tents superb rugs of traditional designs Isfahan though it has factories today is still basically the creation of Shah Abbas who laid out tho Maidan Square surrounded by the vast Shah Mosque the delicate Sheikh Lot-fu'llah Mosque (which the ladies of his harem attended) and the elegant Ali Qapu Palace from which he watched polo The glowing mosaic tiles of the Lot-fullaih Mosque have never been equalled I stayed in the new Kourosh Hotel facing riverside gardens and the Bridge of 33 Arches singles were £13 doubles £16 British Airways daily service to Teheran takes onlv 52 hours non-stop Swan do 15-day tours of Persia's archaeological treasures for £475 1 Easter Cruise i 1 1 I With a sterling guarantee! Beryl Hartland Alice Hope On April 7th Canberra sails on a 3-week Cruise to Vigo Rio SalvadoijTeneriffe and Madeira 23 nights from £458 (inc Port Tax) There's no better value Your holiday pound is cushioned against punishing IRiodcJtteuo exchange rates because your 1 spending on-board is in sterling TAKING THE ROAD TO TROY And you can guarantee yourselt against surcharges once you've paid the current fare for this Cruise in full I I I Cruises 1977" and CRUISES I on 01-377 9270 abroad" I mmmm memm meeeem tem-mm mm mm mJ A PICTURE seen in boyhood of Troy in flames was the start of Heinrich Schliemann's career as an archaeologist and bis astonishing discoveries of the Trojan and Mycenaean gold in my case the desire to see the ruins of Troy dates from a wet week in Skye given up to reading Homer It is almost impossible to condense incidents and scenery of the journey by road from Istanbul to Troy much less evoke the place itself The first part of the Journey is along the coast of the Sea of Marmara with its white beaches and various resorts Then turning inland the countryside becomes wooded a fish lunch and studied the traditional painted carts while the horses dozed in the shafts This is the narrowest point of the Dardanelles and I crossed to Canakkale a seaside town which is the nearest point for Troy It was a May evening and "The echoing plain of windy Troy it is certainly breezy was below me as I stood on the ramparts Across the plain wind the rivers Scamander (or Xanthus) and Simois now modest streams rather than the raging floods of ancient times Beyond the plain is the line of hills behind which the Greeks had their camp and on the horizon the tumuli that are the legendary bunai places of Patro-clus and Achilles By Geoffrey Fletcher cultivated fertile and across the hills with vast forests one drops down to the Dardanelles Along the way one sees gipsy encampments shepherds with goats teams of oxen ploughing I met a man with a camel and attendant donkey he made his living he told me by carrying goods between villages The Turkish villages are unspoiled homesteads of low houses tiled or thatched each village with its little mosque and wayside spring bubbling from a marble wellhead At the little seaside town of Eceabat I had to wait for the ferry-boat so I had Around me Ilium's lofty towers in ashes lay" and among them poppies of an intensity I never saw before Schliemann and the later archaeologists found not one but nine Troys the first dating from 3000 to 2800 BC the latest from the Hellenistic and Roman periods much of which still awaits excavation Although the city was taken and burned after the stratagem of the Wooden Horse civilisation returned only to end finally after an earthquake depopulated the city for good The site was covered with soil until Schliemann disinterred it The Trojan gold he found there which electrified European scholars was discovered in the trench below the city gate Farfrom the madding crowd Sumrnert977 Small BFriendlu MM mm mm noiBi fBnsian noiiaaus SWANS ART TREASURES TOURS 4-VS Each Tour is accompanied by cm expert Guest Lecture'' whose specialised personal knowledge 01 the countries visited wtl arfcf to life much of their artis'ic cultural and historic past A holiday that can open up new vistas of interest SOUTH AFRICA 2 -weeks From £299 Direct flights by SAA with accommodation in Johannesburg Tempo Travel 337 Bowes Road London Nil 1FC 361 1131 a INDIA NEPAL Including Bombay Elephanta Island Aurangabad Ellora Ajanta Daulatabad Udalpur Jaipur Amber Agra Fatehpur Sikri Sikandra Khajuraho Banaras Sarnath Kathmandu Swayambhunath Patan Bhadgaon Fashu-pathlnath Bodhnath Delhi 22 days £7 75 DEPARTURES: Mar 5 Sep 24 Oct 22 THE HOLY LAND Including Ashkelon Beersheba Avdat Masada Hebron Bethlehem Jerusalem Bethany Jericho Qumran Sebastia Beth Alpha Beth She'an Tiberias Tabgha Capernaum Hazor Mount Tabor Kfar Cana Nazareth Haifa Acre Beth She'arim Megiddo Jaffa Tel Aviv DEPARTURES: Apr 19: Oct 4 15 days £485 PERSIA Including Teheran Shiraz Bishapur PersSpeHs Naqsh-i Rajab Naqsh-i Rustam Pasargadae Izadkhast Isfahan Hamadan Kangovar Bisitun Kermanshah Taq-i Bostan Qasvin Varamin Rey 15 days £625 DEPARTURES: Mar 23 30: Apr 6 13 20 27-Ma-' 4 11 Sep 14 21 28 Oct 5 12 19 MEXICO GUATEMALA Including Uxmal Kabah Sayil Labna Chictien Tom Merida Villahermosa Palenque Oaxaca MlUa Yagul Cuilapam Zaachila Monte Alban Mexico City Aeolman Teotihuacan Xochlcalco Cuernavaca Tula Ooatamaia City Antigua Lake Atitlan Tikal 24 days £867 DEPARTURES: Feb 19: Oct 15 We have 46 Art Treasures Tours to different parts of the worla Including Europe Central A South America North Africa Middle East India South Bast Asia A Far East Also Wildlife Safer is: Hellenic Cruises: 60Ontte Stle Cruises Brochures available SARDINIA VILLAS CAMPING HOTELS FLY-DRIVE All Inclusive holidays with Thursday and Saturday flights from £75 FREE brochure from Maaic of Sardinia (Dept DT) 190 Chiswick High Road London W4 Tel 01-894 7823 ATOL 182 BCD SWAN (HELLENIC) LTD e37 oVltfoT rememberand with 15 off for children -and the sooner you get to a travel agent or fill in the coupon for a brochure the better To: Room 64Thomson HolidaysGreater London House Hampstead Road London NWl 75D Please send me a free Small Friendly brochure Name CAREFREE HOLIDAYS IN BRITTANY VENDEE Take your own car to one of 7 beautiful coastal resort sites 2-weeks from under £35 per head including camp site charges large pre-erected fully equipped tent ferry charges British representative at site Brochure from CAREFREE CAMPING (Dept k) 42 Stephyns Chambers Bank Court Hem el Hempstead HP1 1DG (0442) 64303 CANVAS HOLIDAYS have been providing low-coat self -catering holidays abroad for over 11 years and have 32 of the best sites in France Thousands of satisfied customer many of whom go back year after year-would testify to the excellence of their sites equipment and service Please phone Hertford (32) 59933 or write for full-colour brochure CANVAS HOLIDAYS Bull Plain 66 Hertford VILLAS in the SUN Choose from over 500 Villas and Apartments in FRANfF BRITTANY NORTH and I nMnVk south ROYAN and the DORDOGNE countryside PAIM Unspoilt NORTH COAST JrHin COSTA BRAVA aid COSTA BLANCA WITH VILLA RENTALS FROM AS LOW AS £59 per week In June Send for Colour Brochure (15p stamps appreciated) to EURO-PLAN HOLIDAYS LIMITED Dept DT 136 Hawthorne Road Kin get ending Birmingham B44 Tel: 021-373 260678 ABTA BRITTANY WEST COAST SOUTH OF FRANCE Villas and apartments all sizes Bargain Car Ferry rates See our NO SURCHARGE OFFER Free brochure from BELVILLAS (DT) 175 Selsdon Park Road Croydon CR2 8JJ Tel: 01-651 1231 (24 hrs) ABTA To those who Lice a little individuality they could be the most attractive holidays of all -and at surcharge-free prices actually lower than regular summer ones Small and Friendly Hotels and Pensions Return flight- from any of 12 UK airports -and between 7 and 14 nights at a small often family-run hotel or pension in any of 41resorts around the Mediterranean Most offer private bathroom the food (usually half-board) will often be way above average and a Thomson rep is never more man a telephone call away Prices start at £49 -surcharge-free Address DT291 MALTA Maltatours FlightFlat £7 restaurant vouchers Prices from 174 (4 sharing)' Tel: 01-821 1977 GREECE CYPRUS AND NEW YORK Winter breaks in the Golden Age Hotel Athens from £89 The Amathus Beach Hotel (The Jewel of Cyprua) from £147 and the New York Hilton Write phone for brochure: AMATHUS HOLIDAYS (Dept DT) 1 Tottenham Court Road London W1P OHS Tel 01-580 75978 (24-hour telephone service) (ABTA) ATOL 420B THE HERMITAGE country house on rha Isle of Wight Gracious good food excellent cellar comfortable rooms with private baths etc Rambling garden woods and home farm For brochure i tHl HERMITAGE St Catherine's Down loW Tel: Niton 730 352 attar pm IT A Fully inclusive CARAVAN HOLIDAYS on Southern Brittany coast on beautiful terraced wooded site on seashore between Benodet and Coecarneau or on another excellent site near Crozon-Morgat races for a family of 4 Inclusive of Caravan and all Site Charges Cary Ferry and Insurance '-on £170 for 1 days INTERNATIONAL CARAVAN HOLIDAYS (DT) Weatworth Drive Lichfield Staffs WS14 9HN Tel) Lichfield (05432) 51726 any day We take the careYoure free to enjoy yourself Prices subject to aviikbility ATOL 1 5 2B Only Government ictioncin affect these price.