Vendors sell fruit, food and hot beverages along Road 2 next to a billboard depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, right, and his father, slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, near Zanjan, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
TABRIZ, Iran (AP) — After five days on assignment in Tehran, the AP team set out by road toward the Turkish border. For nearly 12 hours, scenes unfolded through the car window, everyday moments shaped by distance and movement.
Each image follows the route by its road number, beginning on Road 2 out of Tehran and continuing along Roads 16, 24, and 32. Along the way they spotted: shepherds with goats and sheep, passing trucks, a stray dog, and roadside life in motion. In Tabriz, a man spins cotton candy; elsewhere, a baker prepares bread, and vendors offer fruit, food and hot drinks. Near Golshahr, a quiet hotel corridor is swept clean.
All the while, stunning landscapes stretch beneath wide blue skies, scattered with bright white and darker drifting clouds.
The journey ends at the Razi–Kapıköy border crossing, where the road, and the story, shifts once more.
This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
A cultivated field with a mountain range in the background, seen from a car on Road 2 between Takestan and Zanjan, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)Cars and trucks line up at a gas station as seen from a roadside café on Road 2 between Tehran and Takestan, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A sign for a roadside hotel is seen on Road 2 near Golhahr, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A woman cleans the floor in a roadside hotel on Road 2 near Golhahr, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A shepherd is seen with his flock in a field next to Road 2 outside Zanjan, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A pickup truck loaded with bundled fabric is parked along Road 2 between Zanjan and Tabriz, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A welcome sign greets visitors on Road 16, outside the town of Bostanabad, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A baker pulls a rack of freshly baked local bread in a roadside bakery on Road 16 in Bostanabad, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)Vehicles drive along along Road 2 between Zanjan and Tabriz, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)Shepherds herd goats along Road 2 near Zanjan, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A man spins cotton candy for passersby in a public park near Road 2 in Tabriz, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A stray dog walks along the tarmac on Road 24 near Baba Kandi village, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A man drives a motorbike along Road 32 near Marand, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A herd of sheep grazes in a field beside Road 11 near the border with Turkey, on the outskirts of Khoy, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)Road 32 stretches toward the Turkish border beneath Khoy Bridge near Razi, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)Rays of sunlight break through clouds over a field on Road 11, near the Turkey border crossing, in Razi, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)Travelers carry their bags as they walk from Turkey through border checkpoints into Iran at the Razi crossing near Razi, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)Travelers arriving from Iran carry bags at the Kapikoy border checkpoint, Turkey, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)People wait for travellers coming from Iran at the Kapikoy border checkpoint, Turkey, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
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