Reza Abbasi was a famous artist living in the Safavid time and known for his artistic breakthrough. The Human being, their appearance, their idol life and pleasures became the theme of this artists painting. For the first time in the history of Iran’s art, an artist signed his works and wrote date and crucial information about it. His paintings are not crowded, usually one or two people in the center with a background that resembles a garden with simple flowers that some were painted with gold.

The objects displayed in this museum have a historical range of prehistoric time to the 19^th century. The museum was built to show the evolution of art in different periods of time and was named after the great Persian Miniaturist, Reza Abbasi.

The museum has two sections, the pre-Islamic art section and Islamic art section and five halls. The Islamic section itself is divided to 4 halls: Islamic Hall 1, Islamic Hall 2, Miniature Hall and Calligraphy Hall. The objects are arranged based on the period they belonged to and therefore, it is very easy to see the transformation of art and compare different period together. The contrast of art from pre-Islamic to Islamic era is also notable that is a proof of Islam’s influence on the minds of the creators of such arts.

The pre-Islamic section displays works retrieved form historical sites of Kermanshah, Azerbaijan, North of Iran and Lorestan. The oldest object belongs to the third Millennium BC and continues up to the 7^th and 8^th century AD. The most common of these objects are dishware, pots and farming tools. Islamic Hall 1 displays objects from early Islamic Period to Seljuk time. While clay was the prominent material of Pre-Islamic time, in this time metals become more popular. The Islamic Hall 2 continues and displays objects from Seljuk until Qajar; again, metals like brass are dominant here. The Human and Animal patterns, light glaze, Inlayed work, Carving, and paintings are the decorations most commonly used in this time.

The fourth hall is the Miniature Hall with miniature work especially from different versions of Shahnâme from 14^th century to the Qajar Dynasty. The highlight of the hall is paintings of Reza Abbasi, the man that the museum is named after. This hall is known for its diversity. Nearly all Iranian Schools of Art are displayed here which adds to the importance of the place. The last hall or the Calligraphy Hall is where visitors can see the masterpieces of Iranian calligraphy, in different styles, with different mediums over various objects and each belonging to a period of Iran’s History. The theme of the works includes lines from Quran, quotes from Imams and prophet, poems by different poets and some books in astrology.

The museum has a very strong research section and library with an archive of some of the best magazines of Iran. The conference hall, gallery, publication and education center make this museum one of the top museums of Iran.

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In 1937, the famous French architect, Andre Godard, built the National Museum of Iran, as the first museum ever made in the country. This complex, being around 80 years old, carries the title of the biggest historical and archaeological museum of Iran, and is the mother museum of the country in terms of variety, quality and the number of historical objects. The National Museum Complex has three sections of Pre-Historic, Historic and Islamic scattered on a land of about 20,000 m² and 18,000 m², displaying 300,000 historical objects. The museum is located on the Si-e Tir Street in Tehran City Center.

It seems the first time, Morteza Gholi Khan Hedayat, who was known as Sani Ol Doleh, and was the first chairperson of Iranian parliament, proposed the land to be used for a museum. Before that, in 1916, part of the ministry of education was turned to a museum named Marefeh. Although the place was not made for this purpose, it still carries the name of the first museum of Iran. The room was in the north side of Dar ol Fonoun School that is the first university of Iran following the international standard of universities. This museum had 279 objects including Bronze, Pottery, Glass, Coins, Old Weapons, Books, and Textiles donated to the museum by the private collection owner. In 1925, the museum was transferred to Mirror hall of Masoudieh Qajar palace.

This complex, being around 80 years old, carries the title of the biggest historical and archaeological museum of Iran, and is the mother museum of the country in terms of variety, quality and the number of historical objects.

From 1897, when Jacques de Morgan began the archeological excavations, Iranians started paying more attention to the importance of national heritages. In 1927, the unconditional treaty signed with French government, that gave the permission of archeological excavation, was forfeited and the European Missions were restricted to excavations in the historic ground of Susa. The attention to natural heritages made the government to hasten the construction of a museum. From the moment that the decision was made, the search for a suitable designer began as well, and the famous French archaeologist and architect Andre Godard was invited to present his plans and build the museum. Godard believed that the architecture of the museum must follow the culture of the land it is built in, and have connection to the objects that are to be presented there; therefore, Taq-e Kasra was chosen as a source of inspiration for designing the entrance of the construct with red bricks that are a reminder of the materials Sassanid used.  The museum is about 11,000 m². The building of the museum was built in three story between 1935 to 1937 and by local building masters; and displays pre-Islamic objects.

The other building of the complex is the one used for Islamic Objects and known as the Museum of Islamic Time. Unlike the Prehistoric and Historic section, the construction of this building faced many obstacles. It was repeatedly halted and even when it was finished, the building closed down for restoration and equipping several times. The process of building the structure began in 1944 and finished in 1996, and a Sassanid palace in Bishapur inspired it. The outcome is a four-story museum with two stories dedicated to displaying Islamic objects in seven halls among which the Quran, the Timurid, the Safavid and the Qajar halls are placed in the first floor and the beginning of the Islam, the Seljuk and the Ilkhanid halls dominate the second floor. In addition, this complex has several other sections like a café, handicraft shop and researching section that has carried the heavy burden of saving, restoring and promoting all objects related to Iran and Iran’s culture and history. Following the latest standards of museum, defined by ICOM, the museum tries to improve itself day by day.

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Nader Shah’s Throne is made of separate pieces about 225 cm and has some inscriptions on the sides which prove that it was built in Fath Ali Shah’s time. 26,733 precious stone is used for this throne, all applied over a wooden throne that was covered with gold. The back of the throne is in shape of a peacock’s tail with two curved shape on either side that lead to the head of a parrot on one side and the head of a dock on the other.

What we know today of the treasures of Iran is from Safavid Dynasty onward, since it was in this time that with the establishment of Royal Treasury, all the treasures were registered and reports were written on what happened to them. The biggest collection of such treasures, today, is kept in the museum of National Treasury.

Daryaye Noor Diamond is also known as Sea of Light, and one of the most precious jewels of the treasury and the most famous of them. This diamond is about 182 carats, which is one of the largest diamonds of the world. Its pink color makes it even more important since this color is very rare in diamonds. This diamond was part of a bigger diamond that was divided and made into two separate piece. Together with Kooh Nour (Mountain of Light), Daryaye Noor was a booty that Nader Shah took after his attack on India.

Kiani Crown was made in the early Qajar Era and to be used by Fath Ali Shah Qajar. The crown is notable since it is the first crown since Sassanid dynasty to be made in this shape with four sections, the lower section or Sarband filled with rubies and diamonds, the middle section or Balat filled entirely by pears, rubies and emeralds and diamonds. The upper section or Kongereh with triangular shape, and after that the velvet hat is seen. This crown has 1800 pears, 300 emeralds, 1500 rubies, and many diamonds.

A group of jewel makers built The Jewel Globe by the order of Naser Al Din Shah, Fourth Qajar King. The base of the globe is made from pure gold, weighing about 34 kg with about 3656 g. jewels adorning it. The continents and countries are made of jewels and about 51366 precious stones was used in this globe. The globe is not geographically right since the makers were Jewel masters and not geographers.

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The mausoleum of this great poet that had a tragic death in poverty was made of the finest stones of the time from marble and with the design of the great architect Hossein Lorzadeh. A variety of reasons led to the subsidence of the massive and heavy construct. In 1964, when all the repairing and restorations proved to be futile, the mausoleum was destroyed and replaced with a new monument with stronger foundation.

When Ferdousi died, his body wasn’t buried in the burial ground of the city since he was a Shiite, so he was buried in his garden somewhere near Toos. His grand position in the society attracted many intellectuals to the place. Several times a monument was built over his grave, which each time it was destroyed until in Qajar time, Naser Al Din Shah that heard the situation of the poet’s tomb ordered the construction of a new place over the ruins of the previous one.

Years later, after the World War I, when a sense of nationalism took over the country, Ferdousi became more important than ever. When it was understood that from the Qajar construct just a series of walls and a platform is remained, a collective collaboration was formed to gather enough money to rebuild the mausoleum. With the donations of people, a pyramid shaped tomb was designed that later were rejected for being foreign and was replaced with a design inspired by Pasargadae, Cyrus the Great’s tomb.

It did not take long for the construct to show signs of subsidence for the construction mistakes of the production team, which forced them to demolish and remake the whole construct. The 900 m2 land was dig about 5 m to be used as the foundation of the mausoleum. 24 pillars carry the weight of the first floor and eight pillars carry the weight of the second one. The whole construct follows the traditions of Achaemenian Architecture. Today the construct is a cube made of cement and iron with a marble façade that some lines from Shah Nameh, Ferdousi’s masterpiece, is carved on it.

In 1964, following a sense of nationality that took the society, people donated money to be used in constructing a mausoleum for the great epic poet Ferdowsi that many consider the reason behind the survival of Farsi language after the invasion of Arabs. The mausoleum was inspired by the tomb of Cyrus the Great which proves the importance of the Poet.

The complex where the tomb is part of, includes other sections such as museum and library as well. Adding the importance of the poet himself to the beauty of architecture and the surrounding garden, it is easily understood why the mausoleum is one of the top tourist attractions of Khorasan Razavi.

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The Falak ol-Aflak Castle located on a hill overlooking Khorramabad City, Lorestan Province dates back to the Sassanid Empire (224-651 CE). The castle has had several names in the course of histories such as Shapour Khast, Siah (Black), Boz, Khorramabad, Sefid (White), Salasel, Atabakan, Ghasr (Palace), Ghale Bala Kushk, and 12-Borj (Twelve-Tower). Of these based on historical documents, Shapour Khast was the oldest name of the castle but as of 1789 since the Qajar Dynasty, the current name, Falak ol-Aflak, has been used.

The castle built mainly with stone, brick, wood, mortar, and lime has an area of 5,200 m2 with a height, considering the hill, accounting for 40 meters. The tallest wall of the castle is also 22.5 meters in height. The Falak ol-Aflak Castle consists of four halls and several rooms surrounding two yards that all of them have a rectangular plan. The entrance to the castle is placed in the north leading to the first yard. Importantly although the structure has had twelve towers in the past, today, eight towers have remained. The water of the castle was supplied from a 40 meter-well behind the first yard.

The Falak ol-Aflak Castle, as a defensive fort, had a significant role in the formation and development of the old city of Khorramabad. Notably, not just as a castle and military fortress, but it had been used as a ruling place, treasury, and even prison in different dynasties. For example, Hasanwayhids, a Kurdish dynasty that ruled over the western part of Iran from about 961 to 1015 used the castle as a ruling place. During the reign of Naser Al-Din Shah, the fourth Qajar king, the castle was rebuilt but at the time of the first king of the Pahlavi Dynasty, Reza Shah was destroyed so as to suppress the powerful local tribes. After the destruction, it was converted to a prison and in 1969, the place turned into a historical attraction open to the public. Finally, since 1975, this structure has been functioning as a museum, first, an anthropology museum and later as of 1977, as an archeology museum.

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Abdul Aziz Farmanfarmaeian designed the building of the museum using the latest technology of the time. In fact, one of the highlights of the Carpet Museum lies in its exterior design that resembles a carpet loom, presenting a mixed architecture of classic style belonging to the 1970s and carpet inspired features. The museum is located in the north-west corner of Laleh Park and Contemporary Museum of Art.

The interior space of the museum has an area of around 3,400 m2 on two floors. The first floor displays a permanent exhibition of those carpets bought by the museum, while the second floor is devoted to a temporary exhibition of handicrafts and private owners’ collections.

The museum has a treasury consists of carpets with a variety of designs, colors, and textures, belonging to Kerman, Tabriz, Isfahan, and Kurdistan provinces. The oldest carpet of this museum dates back to the 15th century.

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Photo by Navid Sadighi via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Azerbaijan museum is one of the National Museum of Iran. The museum is located in the city of Tabriz and near the Blue Mosque. The archaeological museum of Azerbaijan is in accordance with French regulatory of archaeological map. André Godard, the famous French architect, that is the designer of the National Museum of Tehran as well, designed the place taking inspiration from the local architecture of Iran’s Azerbaijan Province; Ismail Dibaj, the chief of culture center of Tabriz made the plan based on the design.

Azerbaijan has monuments and works of art from the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. The collection of the museum is exquisite and around 2,300 pieces of them were archived due to lack of space. On the ground floor of the Azerbaijan museum, the pre-historic and pre-Islamic objects retrieved from different locations and dating back to seven thousand years ago are displayed. Serpentine Ores, The statue of the goddess, and the remnant of bodies of the men and women of the first millennium BC are among the objects displayed in this hall. These bodies were found in the excavations of 1999, in the courtyard of the Blue Mosque with parts of a cemetery.  Because the bodies were all in one grave they’ve been transferred to the museum.

Azerbaijan has monuments and works of art from the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. The collection of the museum is exquisite and around 2,300 pieces of them were archived due to lack of space.

At the theater on the first floor and along with the traces of ancient civilizations, objects from Nishapur civilization of fourth century is presented that are characterized by the use of white glaze with arabesque motifs and Kufic calligraphy. The old historical monuments continues until Qajar era. Other highlights of this section is Pottery and a coded lock dating back to the late sixth century AH.

The basement of the museum is specified to the works of the great Iranian sculptor Ahad Hosseini that adorn the section with his magnificent works. The newest part of the Azerbaijan Museum is the section of the bas-reliefs belonging to different historical periods. The stone is different from the Islamic period; here stone sculptures, human figures and examples of rock scripts are seen.

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Azadi tower is one of the symbols of Tehran that is located in the center of the city. The tower has had a main role in Iranian’s historical events in the past 50 years. It was named Shahyad tower meaning King’s Memorial before the Islamic revolution of 1979. At that time, Azadi tower was built as the symbol of the modern Tehran and celebration of 2500^th anniversary of the Persian Empire, and was designed by Hossein Amanat in 1970. A competition was held open to all Iranian architects and Hossein Amanat, a young student, won the competition.

The construction of the monument took 28 months to finish and on the opening day, The Cyrus Charter (Cyrus cylinder, the original is kept in the British museum) that its origin goes back to 2550 years ago, was unveiled by the king and the Queen of Iran. It became a place of holding important ceremonial events and during the revolution of 1979 many demonstrations organized by the oppositions took place in this square; because of that after the revolution its name changed to Azadi square and Azadi tower that in Farsi means freedom.

The Azadi tower stands in Azadi square with an area of around 50.000 m^2.  It is a combination of Sassanid, Achaemenes and Islamic architecture. From the top, Azadi tower looks like an octagon, and the main pillars of the tower create a rectangle with sides about 42 and 63 meters. As the height increases, the pillars become one and shape a four arched vault. The main arch stand in the center of tower, it was inspired by iwan Kasra that belonged to Sassanid era. The upper arch was inspired by Islamic architecture, the space between the two arches are filled with Rasmi-Bandi that is a kind of decorative design made of sloped arch that fills the space under the vault. The same form of decoration is seen in the Iranian mosques.

The Azadi tower stands in Azadi square with an area of around 50.000 m^2.  It is a combination of Sassanid, Achaemenes and Islamic architecture.

The tower includes eight thousand marble blocks, three floors, four elevators and two stairs. The structure is about 45 meters high with 5 m underground area. According to Hossein Amanat, the design of square follows the tradition of Persian Gardens, albeit in a small scale, and the Sheikh Lotf Allah mosque dome influenced the exterior design and the style of flower. Today, the tower composed of serval underground museums and different halls like library, Iranology hall, science hall, gallery, the communication hall and concert and conference hall.

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Photo by Hamidreza Hasani via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Abgineh museum possesses some of the most remarkable mirror works and pottery vessels of Iran. The museum is an octagonal Qajar building that is located in a 7000 m² garden. The construction of this museum is a combination of Iranian and European architecture; its staircase is inspired by the Russian style and the Exterior design is full of carving and stucco works. Abgineh museum has two floors and five halls. The first and the second hall are in the first floor displaying object from pre-historic period. The other halls are located in the second floor which is assigned to the Islamic objects. Each hall was designed for a specific type of dishware; the names are chosen accordingly and consist of Mina (Enameled) hall, Bolur (crystal) hall, Sadaf (shell) hall, Zarrin Pham (golden shades) hall, and Lajevard (Lazuli) hall.  There is another hall that is titled as the audiovisual hall and is located at the museum’s entrance; it shows how the archeological studies were in the past. There is a mirror case on the ground that displays exploration location.

Abgineh museum has two floors and five halls. The first and the second hall are in the first floor displaying object from pre-historic period. The other halls are located in the second floor which is assigned to the Islamic objects.

As it was mentioned, the first hall is called Mina or Enameled. It has some of the oldest objects retrieved from Chughazanbil temple and Dasht Qazvin. The oldest objects of this museum are some glass pipes called glass cylinder that belongs to 2000 BC. The Bolur or Crystal hall includes some Crystal and mirrored objects coming from historic years and early Islamic period. Sadaf or shell hall has a collection of pottery vessels, remained from 9^th century and some crystal objects from different periods. It also has some Mandayie vessels. Zarrin Pham or the hall of golden shades includes inscription, lusterware and enameled works gained from 10^th century BC to 14^th century BC. The Lajevard or Lazuli hall displays some turquoise wares from Ilkhanid era. The corridor of the museum is also decorated with pottery and crystal objects belonging to different eras of the Islamic period and the 18^th and 19^th centuries that were made in France and Bohemia.

The plaster work of museum is divided to two periods: some objects left from the time of Ghavam Al Saltaneh, and the western style from when it became the Egypt embassy. It must be mentioned that the upstairs mirror works all belong to the Qajar era. The museum has a long history. It used to be Ghavam Al Saltaneh home, the Iranian politician in Qajar and the Pahlavi era, who was the prime minister of Iran for five terms of office. After a while, the building was turned to be Egypt’s embassy, and in this period some European plaster work was attached to the first floor. The building was later changed into Afghanistan embassy and the national trade bank as well.

In 1976, the Farah Pahlavi Institution bought the structure to stablish Mirror and Glassware museum. The museum’s interior design was decorated by Hans Holien the Austrian architecture. Holien designed the museum according to Tachara palace in Takht-e-Jamshid, Safavid arches and Zoroaster Kaaba. The museum is on located on si-e-tir Avenue. It has a library in the northern west side of structure that consists of 4000 English and Persian books related to history of art and archeology.

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