Photo by Behzad Montazeri

Cala Atasperistan

While researching his 1995 book, "Journey of the Magi", Dr. Paul William Roberts used references from Marco Polo's journals to locate this ancient Zoroastrian temple fortress, which Polo describes as the starting point for at least some of the "Wise Men", or "Magi", who traveled to Bethlehem following Jesus' birth. I first traveled to this intriguing site in 1997, as the producer of Mungo Park's "Journey of the Magi".

The structure itself is located in a dramatic setting, flanked on three sides by rocky, multi-hued hills. We questioned our sanity for attempting the dangerous scramble up and into the structure with the children, but then again, how can you stand at the base of the Magi fortress and not want to peek inside?

"I could now picture them up there on those battlements so vividly, thier robes billowing in a soft night breeze, astrolabes and sextants gleaming red in flickering torch light, scanning the heavens, sighting along Orion's belt to Sirius, seeking out Polaris beyond the tail of Ursa Major, and then watching in awe as the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn rose, and unfamiliar jewel in the constellation of Pisces exactly two thousand and one years ago." -- Paul William Roberts from Journey of the Magi