Sights in Tehran
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The Peacock Throne
There has long been confusion about the origins of the Peacock (or Naderi) Throne that now sits in the National Jewels Museum. The real story is this: In 1798 Fath Ali Shah ordered a new throne to be built. His artists made quite a job of it, encrusting the vast throne that looks more like a bed with 26,733 gems.
Set into its top was a carved sun, studded with precious stones, so the throne became known as the Sun Throne. Later Fath Ali married Tavous Tajodoleh, nicknamed Tavous Khanoum or Lady Peacock, and the throne became known as the Peacock Throne in her honour.
Fath Ali certainly had a taste for gems, but one of his predecessors, Nader Shah, liked the finer things to…
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National Jewels Museum
The National Jewels Museum which is owned by the Central Bank but actually housed underneath the central branch of Bank Melli, is probably the the biggest tourist drawcard in Tehran. If you’ve already visited the art gallery at the Golestan Palace, you will have seen the incredible jewellery with which the Safavid and Qajar monarchs adorned themselves. Come here to gawp at the real things.
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Park-e Laleh
Near the centre of Tehran, Park-e Laleh is one of those places that is more than the sum of its parts. Certainly, it is a well-designed green space, but its location amid so much traffic makes the park a real oasis. As you wander through, you’ll notice plenty of young Tehranis refining their flirting techniques over soft-serve ice creams. It’s a great place for people-watching.
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Golestan Palace Complex
In what was once the heart of Tehran is this monument to the glories and excesses of the Qajar rulers. A short walk south from Imam Khomeini Sq, the Golestan Palace complex is made up of several grand buildings set around a carefully manicured garden. Admission isn’t expensive but, annoyingly, you must buy a separate ticket for each building, and all at the front gate.
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D
Sarkis Cathedral
In case you assume that Islam has a monopoly on Iranian life, visit Sarkis Cathedral. Built between 1964 and 1970, it’s interesting not so much for its beauty but because of what it is and where it is. Sarkis Cathedral is by far the most visible and important non-Islamic religious building in Tehran.
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National Museum of Iran
The modest National Museum of Iran is no Louvre, but it is chock-full of Iran’s rich history and should be on every visitor’s list of things to see in Tehran.
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Reza Abbasi Museum
Named after one of the great artists of the Safavid period, the Reza Abbasi Museum showcases Iranian art from ancient times and the Safavid-era paintings of Abbasi himself. If you like Iranian art, it’s one of the best and most professionally run museums in the country. The museum is organised chronologically starting with the top-floor Pre-Islamic Gallery, where you’ll find Achaemenid gold bowls, drinking vessels, armlets and decorative pieces, often with exquisite carvings of bulls and rams. Here, too, you’ll find fine examples of Lorestan bronzes. The middle-floor Islamic Gallery exhibits ceramics, fabrics and brassware, while the ground-floor Painting Gallery sh…
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Darakeh & Darband
On a sunny day few things could be nicer than fleeing the traffic fumes for the foothills of the Alborz Mountains and the walking trails of Darakeh and Darband. Both the trails strike north, passing waterfalls and crossing streams. They are crowded on Thursday afternoon and Friday and make a great place to meet Tehranis in a relaxed, social atmosphere.
The lower reaches of both trails are lined with teahouses and stalls selling food and drinks, which are hugely popular in the evenings - some close mid-week and in winter. A dish of dizi, a kabab or two, a cold drink or a huff and a puff on a qalyan by the stream will soon help you forget the Tehran traffic. Among other tas…
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Ivan-e Takht-e Marmar
The Ivan-e Takht-e Marmar is a mirrored, open-fronted audience hall dominated by a magnificent throne. The throne is supported by human figures and constructed from 65 pieces of yellow alabaster from mines in Yazd. It was made in the early 1800s for Fath Ali Shah, a monarch who managed a staggering (and quite likely very tiring) 200-odd wives and 170 offspring. This hall was used on ceremonial occasions, including the Napoleon-style self-coronation of Reza Shah in 1925.
A narrow corridor leads off to a side room covered with murals of the fictional kings described in Ferdosi's Shahnamah - look for Zahhak, the king with a snake on his shoulder that had to be fed with human…
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Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
On the western side of Park-e Laleh, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is in a striking concrete modernist building constructed during the shah’s rush to build modern landmarks in the 1970s. Contrary to preconceptions of Iran, here’s a collection of art (not always modern and rarely contemporary) by Iranian artists and some of the biggest names of the last century. Established during the ’70s under the direction of the progressive Queen Farah Diba, the museum holds arguably the greatest collection of Western art in Asia – worth between US$2 billion and US$5 billion. It includes works by Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Miró, Dali, Bacon, Pollock, Monet and Warhol, among ot…
reviewed
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Carpet Museum of Iran
Just north of the Museum of Contemporary Art, the two floors of the Carpet Museum house more than a hundred pieces from all over Iran, dating from the 17th century to the present day; the older carpets are mostly upstairs. The museum itself was designed by Queen Farah Diba and mixes ’70s style with carpet-inspired function – the exterior is meant to resemble threads on a loom, which cool down the main building by casting shadows on its walls. You will often see weavers working on a loom on the ground floor and questions are welcome. Inside, a shop sells postcards and books and there’s a pleasant café. Flash photography is not allowed.
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White Palace
What is now called the White Palace was built between 1931 and 1936 and served as the Pahlavi summer residence. The two bronze boots outside are all that remain of a giant statue of Reza Shah – he got the chop after the revolution. The 5000-sq-metre, 54-room palace is no Versailles. Instead it’s a modern building filled with a hodge-podge of extravagant furnishings, paintings and vast made-to-measure carpets. The tiger pelt in the office, among other things, reveals the shah as a man of dubious taste, though in fairness pelts were more in vogue in the 1950s.
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Green Palace
At the uphill end of the complex, the more classical-looking Green Palace was built at the end of the Qajar era and extensively remodelled by the Pahlavis. Shah Reza lived here for only a year and apparently found the bed, if not the mirror stalactites on the ceiling, a little too soft. It was later used as a private reception hall (upstairs) and residence (downstairs) for special guests.
The design is over-the-top opulent, with wall-to-wall mirrors in the appropriately named Mirror Hall, and the bedroom. Be sure to go around the back to take in the view.
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Museum of the Islamic Period
This modern building contains two floors of exhibits from a selection of Islamic arts, including calligraphy, carpets, ceramics, woodcarving, stone carving, miniatures, brickwork and textiles. Don’t miss the silks and stuccowork from Rey, portraits from the Mongol period, a collection of Sassanian coins and gorgeous 14th-century wooden doors and windows. Look also for the beautiful Paradise Door, a 14th-century lustre-painted mihrab (niche in a mosque indicating the direction of Mecca) from Qom, and a 19th-century inlaid door from Esfahan.
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Madraseh va Masjed-e Sepahsalar
The Madraseh va Masjed-e Sepahsalar, at the eastern end of Jomhuri-ye Eslami Ave, is one of the most noteworthy examples of Persian architecture of its period, as well as one of the largest. Built between 1878 and 1890, it’s famous for its multiple minarets and poetry inscribed in several ancient scripts in the tiling. It still operates as an Islamic college and is usually open to male members of the public on Fridays only. Photography is not encouraged, especially outside where the Majlis building is just to the north.
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Shams-Al Emarat
Shams-Al Emarat, at the end of the garden, is an imposing structure and was the tallest palace of its day, designed to blend European and Persian architectural traditions. Born of Nasser al-Din Shah's desire to have a palace that afforded him a panoramic view of the city, it was designed by master architect Moayer al-Mamalek and built between 1865 and 1867. A sequence of mirrored and tiled rooms display a collection of photographs, together with furniture and vases given to the shahs by European monarchs, especially the French.
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Imam Khomeini Mosque
The Imam Khomeini Mosque is right inside the Tehran bazaar and is very much a working mosque and one of the largest and busiest in Tehran. The building itself dates from the early 18th century but the real reason you come here is to see Islam in action. The courtyard is accessed from several parts of the bazaar and hundreds of people pass through here, so it’s usually possible for non-Muslims to stand and watch the faithful performing their ablutions and praying, though photography is less welcome.
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Negar Khane
The Negar Khane displays a fine collection of Qajar-era art. It was the brainchild of Nasser al-Din Shah, who'd been particularly captivated by European museums. Especially interesting are the portraits of the shahs wearing the jewels and crowns you can see in the National Jewels Museum, and pictures of everyday life in 19th-century Iran by Kamal ol-Molk and Mehdi. Women were certainly wearing chadors back then, too. The difference is that the men were also swaddled in three layers of clothing. Well worth a look.
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Holy Shrine of Imam Khomeini
When future generations look back on the historical periods of Iran, the early years of the Islamic Republic will be remembered as a time of great endeavour on the building front. This, the resting place of His Holiness Imam Khomeini, is the grandest of those endeavours. But while the scale of the Holy Shrine of Imam Khomeini is quite enormous, for the time being it looks more like a shoddily built and empty aircraft hangar than one of Iran’s holiest sites.
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Park-e Mellat
Many Tehranis say Park-e Mellat is their favourite in-town getaway, and if you’re here around dusk on any spring or summer afternoon you’ll find plenty of people enjoying the shaded areas around a small lake. On weekend nights you’ll find just as many young people cruising up and down Valiasr Ave, several to a car, showing off their new noses as they flirt and swap phone numbers through car windows.
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US Den of Espionage
More than any other single building in Iran, the former US embassy in Tehran (and the events emanating from it) have had a dramatic and profound influence on the recent history of this country and, indeed, the whole Middle East. From a bunker beneath the embassy building at the junction of Taleqani Ave and Mofatteh St, CIA operatives orchestrated a coup d'etat in 1953 that brought down the government of Mohammad Mossadegh.
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Park-e Shahr
If you're staying in southern Tehran and need a break from the traffic, head straight for Park-e Shahr where you can go ice skating (when it's cold enough), take a boat trip on the tiny lake (in summer) and enjoy tea or qalyan (water pipe) at the laid-back Sofre Khane Sonnati Sangalag year-round. It's also a great place to just sit and watch Tehranis relaxing.
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Iran Ebrat Museum
There is nothing subtle about the Iran Ebrat Museum, a one-time prison of the shah’s brutal secret police that now exhibits that brutality with an equal measure of pro-revolution propaganda. The prison is an incongruously attractive building, with wings radiating from a circular centre. But what went on here was not attractive at all.
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Milad Tower (Borj-e Milad)
Standing 435m high, including 120m of antenna, Milad Tower bears a striking resemblance to Toronto’s CN Tower, with the octagonal concrete shaft tapering from the base to a pod with 12 floors. The pod is home to an observation deck, a revolving restaurant, a ‘sky dome’ and various TV, radio and traffic control functions.
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Sa’d Abad Museum Complex
Set on 104 hectares of spectacular mountainside parkland, the Sa’d Abad Museum Complex was once the royal summer home. There are more than 10 buildings scattered around the site and to see them all you’ll need at least three hours; combining a visit here with lunch in nearby Darband is a good idea.
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