The smoking of flavoured tobacco in water pipes was once commonplace in Iran, but authorities have cracked down on the practise in recent years.

Jill Worrall goes stealthily in search of a teahouse where she can smoke a water pipe, following a crackdown on the practice by Iranian authorities.

The citadel of Rayen is over 1000 years old and was slowly crumbling back into the desert until the Bam earthquake of December 2003. Only then did the powers-that-be realise its worth and being an extensive programme of restoration.

When the Bam earthquake of December 2003 destroyed one of Iran's greatest sights - the ancient Bam citadel in the eastern province of Kerman near the border with Pakistan - it wasn't just Iranians who mourned its loss.

There are vast oil reserves under the Caspian and swimming in its waters are giant caviar-bearing beluga sturgeon.

Matt Kennedy-Good and his mates travel through the heart of the Persian Empire during their epic rally journey.