Tehran

Shop

Get even more with a Lonely Planet guide.

Iran

$26.99

Shop Book

Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images

Plan your trip with Guide, an AI travel planner!

Create a personalized trip itinerary in seconds using artificial intelligence.

Create a trip

Overview

Hugging the lower slopes of the magnificent, snowcapped Alborz Mountains, Tehran is Iran’s most secular and liberal city. Spend time here – as you should – and you'll soon realise that the city is so much more than a chaotic jumble of concrete and crazy traffic blanketed by a miasma of air pollution. This is the nation's dynamic beating heart and the place to get a handle on modern Iran and what its future will likely be.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Golestan Palace

Tehran

The glories and excesses of the Qajar rulers are played out across this complex of grand buildings decorated with beautifully painted tiles and set around…

Sa’d Abad Museum Complex

Tehran

Sprawling across the foothills of Darband, this estate was a summer home to royals since the Qajar dynasty, although it was the Pahlavis who expanded it…

Grand Bazaar

Tehran

The maze of bustling alleys and the bazaris (shopkeepers) that fill them make this a fascinating, if somewhat daunting, place to explore. Despite being…

Detail from the traditional arabic jewellery box.; Shutterstock ID 151427267; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; Project no. or GL code: 56530; Network activity no. or Cost Centre: Online-Design; Product or Project: LP.com Destination Galleries

Treasury of National Jewels

Tehran

Owned by the Central Bank and accessed through its front doors, the cavernous vault that houses what is commonly known as the ‘Jewels Museum’ is not to be…

Niyavaran Cultural-Historic Complex

Tehran

In the Alborz foothills is the palace where Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family spent most of the last 10 years of royal rule. It’s set in 5…

Iran Holy Defense Museum

Tehran

This epic-scale museum, on a landscaped site of 21 hectares, is dedicated to the Iran–Iraq War, a bloody eight-year conflict that claimed a million lives…

Qasr Garden Museum

Tehran

This imaginative sculpture park and museum occupies two former prisons, one for criminals and one for political prisoners, and the grounds surrounding…

Azadi Tower (Borj-e Azadi)

Tehran

The inverted-Y-shaped Azadi Tower, built in 1971 to commemorate the 2500th anniversary of the first Persian empire, is one of Tehran's visual icons…

View more attractions