A Sea Of People, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

My nephew arrived in Tehran last Monday, and he was out in the crowds yesterday (much to my sister's distress, I'm sure). Here's what he wrote about the size of the gathering:

After the sermon ended, people started filing towards Valiasr square, and I was pulled along on the current. I can’t say at all how many people there wereI didn’t even close to make it all the way around the circumference of campus and even if I had it would have been impossible to estimateall I can say is that there were a lot. A lot. It took at least 20 minutes to make it, packed body to body, maybe a hundred meters down the road to where there was at least breathing room. Good Samaritans splashed water from bottles onto the crowd or wet keffiyahs and scarves and then swung them around overheard for a sprinkler effect.