Museum sights in Tehran
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
A
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.
reviewed
-
B
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.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
C
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…
reviewed
-
D
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
-
E
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.
reviewed
-
F
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.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
G
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.
reviewed
-
H
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.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
I
Film Museum of Iran
Housed in a Qajar-era mansion built by Shah Nasir od-Din for his daughter, the Film Museum has well-displayed exhibits of equipment, photos and posters from Iran’s century-old movie industry. It’s interesting, even if you are not well-versed in Iranian film, and the building is fascinating.
reviewed
-
J
Niyavaran Palace Museum
The Niyavaran Palace Museum, the complex where Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family spent most of the last 10 years of royal rule. It’s set in five hectares of landscaped gardens and has four separate museums – tickets must be bought individually at the main gate.
reviewed
-
Talar-e Almas
The tiny Talar-e Almas displays a range of decorative arts - especially 18th- and 19th-century French ceramics - in a room with red walls and a tiled floor. It's not the most riveting room in the palace. The teahouse underneath was closed when we visited.
reviewed
-
Howze Khaneh
The Howze Khaneh is named for the small pool and fountain in the centre of the room. It houses a collection of paintings and sculptures of 19th-century European royalty - generously given to their Qajar counterparts by the same European monarchs.
reviewed
-
K
Glass & Ceramics Museum
The impressive Glass & Ceramics Museum, housed in a beautiful Qajar-era building. Built as a private residence for a prominent Persian family, it later housed the Egyptian embassy and was converted into a museum in 1976.
reviewed
-
L
Shohada Museum
Diagonally opposite the US Den of Espionage is the Shohada Museum, which has rolling exhibitions of photographs, usually from the Iran–Iraq War or the 1979 revolution.
reviewed
-
Museum of Fine Arts
The Museum of Fine Arts is in one of the more impressive buildings and houses some charming Persian oil paintings dating back to the 18th century and some beautiful inlaid furniture.
reviewed
-
Military Museum
The Military Museum is housed inside and around another palace that belonged to the shah's nephew Shahram; just look for the helicopter.
reviewed
-
Museum of Ethnological Research
The Museum of Ethnological Research is a small, specialist museum with a waxworks and ethnological artefacts.
reviewed
-
Abkar Miniature Museum
The Abkar Miniature Museum is a small, specialist museum that displays miniatures by the artist Clara Abkar.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
Mir Emad Calligraphy Museum
The Mir Emad Calligraphy Museum houses samples of Iranian calligraphy from different periods.
reviewed
-
Ethnographical Museum
The Ethnographical Museum is near the main entrance to the Golestan Palace complex.
reviewed
-
-
