Photographer Page

Matthieu Paley

An overnight train takes passengers from the holy city of Mashhad to the desert city of Yazd.

Passengers stand on the local train from Dorud town to Bisheh waterfall.

Families and friends cool off on a summer night along the Dez river in the city of Dezful.

Passengers view seemingly endless desert landscapes on the eight-hour trip from Tehran to the holy city of Mashhad.

The Tower of Silence, on the edge of Yazd, was built for the Zoroastrian custom of laying corpses out to be consumed by carrion birds. The practice has been banned for over 50 years.

A passenger rides northeast from Andimeshk to Dorud.

A boy plays outside his family's mine of magnesite (a mineral used in steelmaking and metallurgy) in the city of Zahedan on the edge of the Lut desert.

The sun shines on Yazd’s old city, where some buildings are in ruins. The grand mosque Masjed-e Jameh, which is depicted on the Iranian 200 rials banknote, can be seen in the background.

A man looks out the window as the train stops in Dorud, western Iran.

A 3D mural brings some whimsy to a street in the city of Mashhad, named after the shrine of Imam Reza, descendant of the prophet Muhammad and the eighth Shia Imam. Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine.