Farasfaj is the kind of place that only makes sense once you have the map open. It sits in the uplands of Hamadan province, in western Iran, on the high farming plateau that the Zagros mountains pile up behind. The nearest real towns are Kangavar to the north-west and Nahavand to the south-east, both a good half hour away, so this is a village stop in open country rather than a place with services. Fill the tank before you leave one of those towns and carry water, because nothing here should be assumed.
The country around is wide and rolling, wheat and orchard land under hills that turn from green to the colour of straw by early summer. Roads across this plateau are generally broad and fast, with long gentle bends and the occasional village that drops you to a crawl for livestock, motorbikes and children. Afternoon light on the stubble fields is lovely, and the dust that trucks throw up makes it hang in the air like gauze.
What gives the area its weight is the old road running through it. This is the corridor that carried traffic between the Mesopotamian lowlands and the Iranian plateau for thousands of years, passing Hamadan, which was Ecbatana, the capital of the Medes and a summer seat of the Persian kings. Kangavar still has the platform of a large ancient sanctuary that early travellers linked to the goddess Anahita, and further west the cliff of Bisotun carries the great relief and inscription Darius the Great had cut around 520 BC to tell the world how he won his throne. Anyone riding here is on the same line of travel as armies, merchants and pilgrims.
Treat Farasfaj as a pause in the landscape, a place to look at the mountains, drink tea if someone offers it, and let the scale of the plateau register. If you have a day to spare, put Bisotun on the same ride, and go early, because the cliff face is lit best in the morning and the car park fills by midday.
Be ready for police checkpoints on the main roads, which are routine, polite and usually quick. Keep your documents handy and your speed honest.