Azarbaijan Museum


This museum's entrance is a great brick portal with big wooden doors guarded by two stone rams. Ground-floor exhibits include finds from Hasanlu (an Iron Age town that developed into a citadel over 4000 years), a superb 3000-year-old copper helmet and curious stone ‘handbags’ from the 3rd millennium BC. Found near Kerman, these are understood to be symbols of wealth once carried by provincial treasurers.

The basement features Ahad Hossein’s powerful and disturbing sculptural allegories of life and war. The top floor displays a re-weave of the famous ‘Ardebil’ carpet, reckoned to be one of the best ever made; the original is beautifully displayed in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Khaqani Park

0.04 MILES

This small garden honours 12th-century Azeri-Persian poet Shirvani Khaqani and is a favourite haunt of students looking to practise their English.

2. Blue Mosque

0.08 MILES

When constructed for ruler Jahan Shah in 1465, the Blue Mosque with its intricate turquoise mosaics was one of the most famous buildings of its era…

3. Municipal Hall

0.21 MILES

The iconic 1930s German-designed Municipal Hall, still the bastion of city power, dominates Sa'at Sq. There's a museum in the basement with various city…

5. Museum of Measurement

0.28 MILES

The measurement museum is hidden down a small, walled alley in a beautifully restored 160-year-old Qajar mansion. Skip it if you're not into rococo German…

7. Shahriyar House Museum

0.34 MILES

Enter a time warp to late-'70s Tabriz in the preserved house of much-loved poet Ostad Shahriyar (1906–88). Surrounded by his everyday belongings, you…

8. Amir Bazaar

0.51 MILES

The surefire way locals protect themselves against inflation is with a chunk of the yellow stuff from the jewellery section of the Tabriz bazaar.