Shirazi.

Subject: the cool dude who's sitting with me presently, drinking tea on the hotel roof in Shiraz.

15.

This next bit of information I'm going to divulge is a tad embarrassing, so don't laugh. And please remember that I am indeed a 23 year old man. The thing is, there's this game I have on my computer. To kill time, you see, not because I enjoy playing it. No way!

In this game you play the role of the dynasty of your choice and your job is to claim the land on the map and battle with other Empires over the resources (stop laughing). Anyway, I've previously mentioned that there is nothing to do here after 9pm, well for the Iranians at least. When nine o'clock calls and the hotel lights start to shutdown I know what time it is. It's Civilisation V time.

I decided to go as the Persian Empire, Darius I, for obvious reasons. The game is pretty well researched, so my cities on the map are historically accurate (Persepolis, Pasargadae etc), my army are called the Immortals.

This morning I took a trip to to the tombs of the Necropolis and then my the ancient capital city of Persia, Persepolis. I was the only one on the tour so I basically had a private guide- who was really passionate. The Necropolis is made up of four massive tombs built into a cliff-face, adorned with intricate depictions of ancient battles. It looked similar to Petra.

-"This tomb in the middle", he said, "is between 2000 and 2500 years old. It belongs to Darius I of Persia".

My eyes lit up. I remembered that I'd saved the game half way through a testing battle with the Russian Empire, I knew I'd take Moscow by that evening.

"The mural depicts Darius riding into battle against the Romans"

Did I imagine my face on the man carved into the rock? Maybe.

We drove over to Persepolis, which was astonishing. Although there's not much left, the details on the walls are exquisite. We walked round to the hall of one hundred pillars, once home to the Persian army headquarters.

"The Persian army was made up of 10,000 men at all time, each time one person died they were replaced, and for this reason they were called-"

"The Immortals".

"Yes! You like History Mr Oliver?" (my middle name, which is always taken for my surname when I travel)

"You bet, and please, call me Darius."