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Just outside the complex’s official limits sits this splendid 15th-century mosque, famous for its beautiful late Timurid tilework and beautiful tracery lamps; it’s a lovely spot to soak up the atmosphere of ancient Khorasan.
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Safavid Bridges
Ardabil has at least five restored bridges across the Baliqli Chay (Fishy River). Nicknamed Yeddi Göz (Seven Eyes), the seven-span Pol-e Jajim is the most famous, but the cute, three-arch Pol-e Ebrahimabad is more appealing.
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Imamzadeh Abdollah
This is a still-expanding complex that contains dazzling mirror work. Its large blue dome looks especially photogenic viewed through trees from near the bus terminal against a distant backdrop of seasonally snow-topped ridges.
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Mehrabad Mosque
For tourists the main attraction is Bonab’s active Mehrabad Mosque near the junction of Bahonar and Ghom Sts. The exterior is modest but inside are splendid wooden support columns sporting coloured, faceted capitals dated 1083.
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Khayyam’s Tomb
Neishabur’s main attraction remains Khayyam’s Tomb . Its present form is a distinctive 1970s-modernist affair with diamond-shaped lozenges of calligraphic tiling (Khayyam’s words, naturally) set in a curved, airy net of criss-crossed marble.
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Pasargadae
Begun under Cyrus the Great in about 546 BC, the city of Pasargadae was quickly superseded by Darius I’s magnificent palace at Persepolis. The site is not nearly as well preserved as Persepolis, but is beautiful in a lonely, windswept way.
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Shahrdari
Rasht’s most identifiable landmark, the Shahrdari’s colonial style is tempered by a token mini-dome topping a distinctive whitewashed tower. It looks great when floodlit at night. Palm trees admire the interplay of fountains in the square opposite.
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Khosroabad Mansion
This formerly grand mansion has an impressive central courtyard with reflecting pools and was once the palace of Ardalan emir Amonulla Khan but is now in a fairly parlous state. It’s two blocks up a quiet boulevard of plane trees from Sahar Kaveh St.
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Constitution House
This charming Qajar-era courtyard house is historically significant as a headquarters during the 1906–11 constitutional revolution, but although many labels are in English the numerous photos and documents are unlikely to excite non-specialist tourists.
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Orumiyeh Museum
Fronted by two stone rams, this small but richly endowed museum displays fabulously ancient pottery and fine cuneiform inscription stones. Its most eye-catching exhibit is a replica of a priceless golden chalice beautifully embossed with charioteers.
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Sardar Mosque
Less religiously significant than Jameh Mosque but architecturally fanciful Sardar Mosque has a Qajar-style tri-lobed cornice, a beautifully brick-vaulted interior and clock-tower minaret surmounted by what looks like a giant perfume bottle-stopper.
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Gonbad Sheikh Loghman Baba
The 1356 Gonbad Sheikh Loghman Baba in a wheat-field. That domed brick tomb-tower has a massive, shattered arch support tower and an impressively vast three-storey interior with sections of disintegrating stalactite vaulting held in place by wooden staves.
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Iranian Photographers’ Centre
The Iranian Photographers’ Centre has rolling exhibits of the work of local and, occasionally, international photographers. The adjoining shop sells and processes slide film and sells pro equipment. Not surprisingly, it’s a good place to meet Iranian photographers.
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Post House
About 52km north of Yazd, Meybod is a sprawling mud-brick town that is at least 1800 years old. It has three main sights near each other in the west of town, all open from 9am to 5pm, or 7pm in summer. They include a 300-year-old post house that served as a relay station on.
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Sheik Jebra’il Shrine
Sheikh Jebra’il, Sheikh Safi-od-Din’s father, is buried underneath a mildly attractive 16th-century structure at Khalkhoran, a village-suburb 3km northeast of the centre. It’s an active shrine; remove your shoes before inspecting the murals and multifaceted ceiling.
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Sheikh Zahed Mausoleum
The blue, pyramidal roof of the distinctive wooden Sheikh Zahed Mausoleum is Lahijan’s architectural icon. The holy man buried here supposedly lived to the ripe old age of 116 (1218–1334). That’s longer than the present mausoleum, which was rebuilt after a devastating 1913 fire.
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Niyavaran Palace Museum
East of Tajrish 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 hectares of landscaped gardens and has five separate museums – tickets must be bought individually at the main gate.
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Mir Razi Mausoleum
In the hills above town (passing close to a golden domed mosque en route), is Mir Razi Mausoleum a 1975 memorial to Safavid sufi poet Mir Razi-ed-Din-e-Artisani (died 1627). The architecture is along the lumpsome lines of Hamadan’s Baber Taher tower but the site is peaceful and att
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Katalekhor Caves
The visit involves around 1¼ hours underground walking up and back in small guided groups. The experience isn’t unduly claustrophobic and it culminates in several vistas of fine stalactite formations that are much more impressive that those at better-known Ali Sadr. There’s no publ
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Hasht Behesht Palace
Once the most luxuriously decorated in Esfahan, the interior of the small Hasht Behesht Palace has been extensively damaged over the years. However, it retains a seductive tranquillity, with the soaring wooden columns on its open-sided terrace seeming to mirror the trees in the sur
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