I was flanked by a mathematician and a retired rocket scientist, as we looked down at the Valley of the Assassins, five hours drive to the north of Tehran, Iran. We weren’t contemplating the wonders of the universe though – but gulping lungfuls of cold air, while standing amidst the ruins of the Alamut castle. Half the tour group were sitting comfortably, 800 feet below, having decided not to scramble up the steep, shale path. The fierce wind snapping at my long black coat and hejab (headscarf) didn’t make the ascent any easier.
Our group consisted of predominantly male English travellers, with the exception of myself and two other women – Australian, American and Scottish, respectively. The trip to the Valley of the Assassins capped a three week tour of Iran. Our curiosity had been fuelled by the various accounts of writer Freya Stark, adventurer Wilfrid Thesiger, and even Marco Polo, who had written about his visit to the castle, the former haven of murderous zealots, after it had been destroyed by the Mongols.
It’s alleged that the Assassins of Alamut, were founded by a leader known as the ‘Old Man of the Mountains’, as a medieval sect who fought Christian Crusaders as well as Muslim rulers between the 11th and 13th centuries. Young recruits were attracted by the promises of a secret pleasure garden in the grounds of the castle, filled with wine and honey and the most beautiful women in the world, a paradise to which they would return upon death in action. It’s claimed they were drugged on hashish in preparation for their missions, although you’d think they would have had to be fairly lucid to exhibit the dexterity and cunning required for their acts of political murder.
As we clambered about the rocks, little evidence of the sect or the paradise garden remained, apart from the scattered foundation stones of the castle. I gave the desolate Alborz mountains one last look, and realised, with a grimace, that the stuff of legends – a sordid mix of sex, drugs and heresy – would continue to lure both the strong and weak-minded to the top of the mountain.
RELATED INFO:
This story was written while listening to ‘Passion’ by Peter Gabriel and the soundtrack to ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ by John Powell.
The trip to the Valley of the Assassins was taken in 2001, with the Explore tour group.
In 2004, Reuters news agency reported several fatalities after an earthquake struck the village of Alamut and surrounding countryside.