Ramsar Palace Museum

Iran


This ornately furnished 1937 building, set in a walled garden, was once the summer palace of Reza Shah. Gilded, over-the-top rooms mix guillotine-era French furniture with distinctly Persian motifs of cheetahs and fine carpets. Check out the rampaging golden beasts on the side of the dinner tray. However, the building is best remembered for hosting the 1971 signing of the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the protection and conservation of the world's wetlands.