Central Museum


This eclectic museum kicks off with chunks of now-superseded shrine decor interspersed with contemporary sporting medals presented by pious athletes, while the basement stamp collection includes a 1983 commemorative featuring the ‘Takeover of the US Spy Den’. The 1st-floor Visual Arts Gallery offers you the opportunity to shower money (or hats) down onto the top of the Holy Shrine’s fourth zarih tomb encasement (replaced in 2001).

Amid seashells and naturalist landscape paintings of Surrey, keep an eye out for Mahmood Farshchian’s modern classic Afternoon of Ashura – a grief-stricken depiction of Imam Hossein’s horse returning empty to camp after the Imam’s martyrdom.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Carpet Museum

Arguably the Haram's best museum. Rugs displayed here range from beautiful classics through to garish coral gardens and a Tabriz-made carpet-portrait of…

2. Imam Khomeini Ravagh

0.06 MILES

All a-dazzle with intricate, mirror-faceted tiling, this former courtyard is now enclosed and entirely covered by a sparkling ceiling held in place by…

3. Haram-e Razavi

0.1 MILES

Imam Reza’s Holy Shrine is enveloped in a vast series of sacred precincts collectively known as the Haram-e Razavi, or Haram for short. This magical city…

5. Azim-e Gohar Shad

0.11 MILES

Exploring the Haram you might glimpse the 50m blue dome and cavernous golden portal of this classic Timurid mosque, built from 1405 to 1418. Unfortunately…

6. Holy Shrine

0.12 MILES

Amid tearful prayer and meditation, the climax to any Mashhad pilgrimage is touching and kissing the zarih (gold-latticed cage), which covers Imam Reza’s…

7. Caravanserai Azizolaof

0.14 MILES

Behind heavy wooden doors, this 90-year-old caravanserai is full of underwear stalls run by Afghan merchants. It's fascinating for its cameo scenes of…