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Regional Museum
The well-renovated Lotfolla Sheikh-al-Islam Mansion houses a Regional Museum whose multicoloured windows (orosi) were designed for practicality as well as beauty: supposedly they disoriente mosquitoes. Exhibits include some extraordinarily old pottery and metalwork treasures but sa
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Lotfolla Sheik
The well-renovated Lotfolla Sheikh-al-Islam Mansion houses the Regional Museum whose multicoloured windows (orosi) were designed for practicality as well as beauty: supposedly they disoriente mosquitoes. Exhibits include some extraordinarily old pottery and metalwork treasures but
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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,
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Marsarjis Church
More atmospheric than the churches in Orumiyeh is the Assyrian Orthodox Marsarjis Church in the tiny hillside hamlet of Sir (5.6km west of Pol-e-Qoyum). Despite a somewhat heavy-handed 1987 renovation, the bare stone walls of its twin cave-like chambers feel genuinely ancient. Ask
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Kerman National Library
The Kerman National Library modestly bills itself as the ‘greatest informatic research centre in the country’, but for non-Farsi speakers it’s the architecture – a forest of columns supporting vaulted ceilings – that is the real attraction. Built in 1929, the style is a harmonious
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Church of St Stephanos
Jolfa’s main tourist drawcard is the very attractive Armenian Church of St Stephanos . The earliest surviving part of the building is 14th century. However, St Bartholomew first founded a church on the site around AD 62, a single generation after Christ. The well-preserved exterior
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US Den of Espionage
Decorated with colourful down with America murals, the former US embassy is where the 1953 coup that brought down Mohammad Mossadegh was orchestrated, and from where the last shah supported and influenced. During the revolution, students who feared a repeat coup stormed the embassy
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Martial Museum
It exhibits guns, model ships and the conjectured uniform of a Persepolis-era soldier (looking more like the costume for a hippy toga party). But the real fascination is the splendid setting, a classically styled mansion-palace with sweeping stairways that was once Reza Shah’s Casp
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Jameh Mosque
The mud-daub walled 1285 Jameh Mosque backs onto the fine 1313 Borj Kashani , a circular tomb-tower that possibly doubled as an astronomical observatory like that at Radkan. The mosque reportedly contains superb stucco-work but getting in can be hit-and-miss.
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Gavmish
On otherwise-lonely plains sloping gently towards mighty Mt Sabalan (4811m) sits this brash little hot-springs resort. Its mineral waters are said to cure anything from baldness to syphilis, and tacky souvenir stores overflow with Iranian miracle seekers in summer, making for great
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Chehel Sotun
When Qazvin took its turn as Iran’s capital, this attractive, colonnaded cube was Shah Tahmasp’s royal palace . Built in 1510, it was greatly remodelled in the Qajar era. Set in the town’s little central park it looks especially photogenic at night, with its delicate balustrades fl
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Asef Mansion
This is another attractively restored Qajar building that’s now a museum of Kurdish life. Mannequins are dressed in various distinctive tribal costumes that are still commonly worn in valleys around Kordestan. One room features Sanandaj’s speciality wood-inlay crafts. A side courty
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Yakhchal Moayedi
The Safavid-era Yakhchal Moayedi is a well-preserved, conical adobe structure that was used to store ice. The ice store was, and in some part still is, surrounded by gardens. The gardens would fill with water during winter, and when the water froze the ice would be slid into the ya
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Carpet Museum
You’ll find the horse image repeated here, where rugs range from beautiful classics through to garish coral gardens and a Tabriz-made carpet-portrait of WWI bogey-man Kaiser Wilhelm II. Tying the staggering 30 million knots for Seven Beloved Cities took 14 years. Upstairs, beside t
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Kariz
This recently opened tourist attraction located next to the tennis stadium is also known as the Kish Cultural and Tourist Complex. A subterranean network of stone passageways built around an historic qanat , it’s a largely modern, commercially driven complex masquerading as a histo
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Mehdi Gholibek Hamam
In the shadow of the mosque squats one of Iran’s most interesting and spacious bathhouse museums. The main delight is the wonderful central dome repainted for centuries in multiple levels – most recently in 1922 with naive murals that feature anthropomorphic figures gallivanting be
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Bazaar & Craft Workshops
The fascinating covered bazaar amply repays idle wandering. At the east end of the fine Bazaar-e Vazim, Saroye Vazir is stacked high with bundled old carpets. It’s one of several wonderfully down-at-heel caravanserais between which you’ll still find the odd door-maker and metal wor
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Museum Of The Holy Defence
The Museum of the Holy Defence remembers the eight-year Iran-Iraq War. Symbolism abounds, although much of it won’t be obvious without an English-speaking guide. Inside is a gallery of gruesome photos, weapons, letters and documents from the war. Outside, along with a line-up of ta
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Sheikh Shahabdin Ahari Mausoleum
Incorporated into its front iwan (barrel-vaulted hall opening onto the courtyard), one of two giant exterior columns retains the original blue glaze. Inside, beyond displays of Safavid Qurans, candlesticks and keshkul dervish ‘coconut handbags’, is an inner courtyard where the shei
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Shush Museum
Some tourists visit this bright new museum quite by mistake, thinking that they’ve actually entered the archaeological site (whose access track is right beside it). The museum’s five rooms display ancient stone- and pottery-work from archaeological sites in the region. Highlights i
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