Top of the World
Alamut Castle would mean the eagle's nest or even "the eagle's teaching". To reach Alamut, just leave Tehran early in the morning and after 150 km northwest, you will reach a point on the highway that is only 10 km from Qazvin city. There you have to follow the sign and turn right in the direction of the mountains; it is only 140 km but they are very difficult mountain passes, 4 hours for this last part of the route.Hollywood, in the last years, has shown them several times; the Assassins and the castle of Alamut appear both in the fantasy movie "Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time" and also in the historical reconstruction about the life of Avicenna in the movie "Medicus".after the village of Moallem Kalayè a sign announces the entrance in the valley of the "Assassins". The word is the Latinized version of Hashishiyun or smokers of Hashish. The Ishmailiti were born in the ninth century AD in Persia in the Shiite world and believe in 7 sacred descendants of Mohammed instead of 12 (like most Shiites). Theirs was a true esoteric religion, and their most famous Persian spiritual leader, Hassan Sabbah (Qom 1034 circa - Alamut, 1124) was in fact a hermit fighting against the Sunni Seljuk government in power in Persia in the 11th century. The Agha Khan so famous today, leader of the Indian ismailiti, is of the same confession as Sabbah, that of the Nizariti ismailiti (originally all Persians). The sect of the old man of the mountain (Hassan Sabbah) led an incredible battle against the Seljuk. His men, who are said to have always been under the influence of the Hashish before performing their deeds, assassinated King Maliksha, set fire to the Friday mosque of Isfahan; after each operation they retreated to this very valley, where they had the beauty of 23 fortresses; Alamut was the most unreachable, because on all 4 sides it overlooks very deep ravines.
