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long tunnel just at the top and emerge on the south side of the moun- tains running down to the central plain of Iran. Where it was hot and moist tropical heat along the Caspian about like Hawaii it was

very

hot and dry all over the rest of Iran.

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In Teheran we stayed at the Hilton which like most Hiltons was very plush with several restaurants and all facilities. We stayed here three different times as we used it as a base of operations from which we departed on other trips. It is located quite a ways north of the city proper up nearer the base of the mountains and as Teheran is located on a big alluvial fan coming down from the mountains it is quite a bus trip straight down hill into the city proper. We were now in Islamic country and so of course we had to start seeing mosques and other im- portant buildings all in that style. I'm not turned on to Islamic art, culture or philosophy so I got pretty tired of it all before we were through not only in Iran, but in Kuwait and in southern Russia. But the one outstanding building is the Gullistan Palace. You know, Bucking- ham, Versailles, Shonberg (in Vienna) and the palaces in Sweden, Italy and elsewhere all seem to have been built by the same school of architects. But they had a new boy in Persia all right. It bore no physi- cal resemblance to other palaces except that it had a throne room. The entrance way staircase and hallways were all done in mirror small pieces of mirror stuck into the walls. It was like walk- ing around inside a gigantic diamond with light reflections sparkling in all directions. Quite overwhelmingly beautiful. Other rooms of the palace including the throne room looked as though they had been done by Wedgewood of china fame because the walls were painted a light blue and the plaster scrolls, swirls and moldings were all bril- liant white. Truly a different place. Or course all sorts of fantastically beautiful (and expensive) gifts that the present and past Shahs had re- ceived from other princes, presidents and potentates were lined up along the walls.

mosaics

The Shah's jewels are not kept in the palace but in an underground vault downtown which is guarded like the National Bank. Displays and cabinets by the dozens all showing off the accumulated wealth of the royalty of Persia (Iran). But here it was just like it was looking at the Sultan's palace and his jewels in Istanbul. Enough is enough is too much. Large diamonds, emeralds and rubies, especially when they are polished in the rounded form called cabochon cuts tend to look

like big hunks of white and colored glass super rhinestones. You know they aren't, but that's what they come out like. And when they are encrusted on robes, crowns, awards, cups and bowls, etc., they look