• Iran's Attraction

There are a lot of historic sites and tourist attractions in Iran. Here you get familiar with some of those which have been registered in the UNESCO List of world human heritage. Of course, Iran is an ancient country that can potentially offer plenty of historic sites and tourist attractions to its visitors.

 

• Iran’s Historical Sites in the UNESCO List :

 

 

• Tchogha Zanbil:

This  tourist attraction and historic site is a ziggurat-shaped temple built under the kingdom of Elam, c. 1250 B.C.
It is surrounded by three huge walls and can be seen from a long distance.Millions of bricks have been used in the construction of this temple.

 The ruins of the holy city of the Kingdom of Elam, surrounded by three huge concentric walls, are found at Tchogha Zanbil. Founded c. 1250 B.C., the city remained unfinished after it was invaded by Ashurbanipal, as shown by the thousands of unused bricks left at the site.

 

 

• Persepolis:

This tourist attraction and historic site is the most famous and popular site in Iran. It is the palace complex built under Darius the Great in 518 B.C.

There used to be 29 nations sending delegation there to the Persian emperors paying respect and meeting on certain occasions
Founded by Darius I in 518 B.C., Persepolis was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. It was built on an immense half-artificial, half-natural terrace, where the king of kings created an impressive palace complex inspired by Mesopotamian models. The importance and quality of the monumental ruins make it a unique archaeological site.

 

• Meidan-e-Emam:

This tourist attraction and historic site is a huge square with monuments on all its four sides along the two-storeyed arcades in Esfehan.
What makes this site a top tourist attraction is the ultimately grand examples of Iranian architecture.

Built by Shah Abbas I the Great at the beginning of the 17th century, and bordered on all sides by monumental buildings linked by a series of two-storeyed arcades, the site is known for the Royal Mosque, the Mosque of Sheykh Lotfollah, the magnificent Portico of Qaysariyyeh and the 15th-century Timurid palace. They are an impressive testimony to the level of social and cultural life in Persia during the Safavid era.

 

• Takht-e-Soleyman:

This tourist attraction and historic site is an archaeological site in the mountains.
You can find various structures from pre-Islam to post-Islam eras here. There are ancient temples like fire temple and water temple found here.

The archaeological site of Takht-e Soleyman, in north-western Iran, is situated in a valley set in a volcanic mountain region. The site includes the principal Zoroastrian sanctuary partly rebuilt in the Ilkhanid (Mongol) period (13th century) as well as a temple of the Sasanian period (6th and 7th centuries) dedicated to Anahita. The site has important symbolic significance. The designs of the fire temple, the palace and the general layout have strongly influenced the development of Islamic architecture.

 

 

• Pasargadae:

This tourist attraction and historic site is the capital of the first dynastic Persian Empire, Achaemenians.
Pasargadae is also the first example of Achaemenians’ palace compounds and the first examples of Persian garden planning in Iranian history.

pasargadae was the first dynastic capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus II the Great, in Pars, homeland of the Persians, in the 6th century BC. Its palaces, gardens and the mausoleum of Cyrus are outstanding examples of the first phase of royal Achaemenid art and architecture and exceptional testimonies of Persian civilization. Particularly noteworthy vestiges in the 160-ha site include: the Mausoleum of Cyrus II; Tall-e Takht, a fortified terrace; and a royal ensemble of gatehouse, audience hall, residential palace and gardens. Pasargadae was the capital of the first great multicultural empire in Western Asia. Spanning the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt to the Hindus River, it is considered to be the first empire that respected the cultural diversity of its different peoples. This was reflected in Achaemenid architecture, a synthetic representation of different cultures.

 

• Bam:

This tourist attraction and historic site is an ancient walled city originally built under Achaemenians.
Kariz, an ancient Iranian underground water supplement system, known as qanat, made life possible in this oasis.
Bam is situated in a desert environment on the southern edge of the Iranian high plateau. The origins of Bam can be traced back to the Achaemenid period (6th to 4th centuries BC). Its heyday was from the 7th to 11th centuries, being at the crossroads of important trade routes and known for the production of silk and cotton garments. The existence of life in the oasis was based on the underground irrigation canals, the qanats, of which Bam has preserved some of the earliest evidence in Iran. Arg-e Bam is the most representative example of a fortified medieval town built in vernacular technique using mud layers (Chineh).

 

• Soltaniyeh:

This tourist attraction and historic site is the capital of the Ilkhanid dynasty where the mausoleum of Oljaytu is located.
This masterpiece of architecture is a unique example of Iranians’ precision in mathematics and calculation in engineering.
The mausoleum of Oljaytu was constructed in 1302–12 in the city of Soltaniyeh, the capital of the Ilkhanid dynasty, which was founded by the Mongols. Situated in the province of Zanjan, Soltaniyeh is one of the outstanding examples of the achievements of Persian architecture and a key monument in the development of its Islamic architecture. The octagonal building is crowned with a 50 m tall dome covered in turquoise-blue faience and surrounded by eight slender minarets. It is the earliest existing example of the double-shelled dome in Iran. The mausoleum’s interior decoration is also outstanding and scholars such as A.U. Pope have described the building as ‘anticipating the Taj Mahal’.

 

• Bisotun:

This tourist attraction and historic site is the largest inscription of the world consisting of 1119 lines of cuneiform in three languages.
The rock relieves depict Darius the Great after an initial endeavor to arrest the rebels who had introduced themselves falsely as sons of Cyrus the Great.

Bisotun is located along the ancient trade route linking the Iranian high plateau with Mesopotamia and features remains from the prehistoric times to the Median, Achaemenid, Sassanian, and Ilkhanid periods. The principal monument of this archaeological site is the bas-relief and cuneiform inscription ordered by Darius I, The Great, when he rose to the throne of the Persian Empire, 521 BC. The bas-relief portrays Darius holding a bow, as a sign of sovereignty, and treading on the chest of a figure who lies on his back before him. According to legend, the figure represents Gaumata, the Median Magus and pretender to the throne whose assassination led to Darius’s rise to power. Below and around the bas-reliefs, there are ca. 1,200 lines of inscriptions telling the story of the battles Darius waged in 521-520 BC against the governors who attempted to take apart the Empire founded by Cyrus. The inscription is written in three languages. The oldest is an Elamite text referring to legends describing the king and the rebellions. This is followed by a Babylonian version of similar legends. The last phase of the inscription is particularly important, as it is here that Darius introduced for the first time the Old Persian version of his res gestae (things done). This is the only known monumental text of the Achaemenids to document the re-establishment of the Empire by Darius I. It also bears witness to the interchange of influences in the development of monumental art and writing in the region of the Persian Empire. There are also remains from the Median period (8th to 7th centuries B.C.) as well as from the Achaemenid (6th to 4th centuries B.C.) and post-Achaemenid periods.

 

• Shushtar Waterfalls:

These waterfalls are the masterpieces of engineering at the time of ancient Iranians.
The entire collection includes waterfalls, dams, bridges, basins, mills, etc. The waterfalls are planned and dug into the rocks on the new course of water chosen by the ancient engineers.shushtar, Historical Hydraulic System, inscribed as a masterpiece of creative genius, can be traced back to Darius the Great in the 5th century B.C. It involved the creation of two main diversion canals on the river Kârun one of which, Gargar canal, is still in use providing water to the city of Shushtar via a series of tunnels that supply water to mills. It forms a spectacular cliff from which water cascades into a downstream basin. It then enters the plain situated south of the city where it has enabled the planting of orchards and farming over an area of 40,000 ha. known as Mianâb (Paradise). The property has an ensemble of remarkable sites including the Salâsel Castel, the operation centre of the entire hydraulic system, the tower where the water level is measured, damns, bridges, basins and mills. It bears witness to the know-how of the Elamites and Mesopotamians as well as more recent Nabatean expertise and Roman building influence.UNESCO Historical Site: Armenian Monastic Ensembles

 

• Armenian Monastic Ensembles:

There are three monastic ensembles of the Armenian Christians living in the North West of present day Iran:
St Thaddeus, St Stepanos, and the Chapel of Dzordzor.
The Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran, in the north-west of the country, consists of three monastic ensembles of the Armenian Christian faith: St Thaddeus and St Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzordzor. These edifices - the oldest of which, St Thaddeus, dates back to the 7th century – are examples of outstanding universal value of the Armenian architectural and decorative traditions. They bear testimony to very important interchanges with the other regional cultures, in particular the Byzantine, Orthodox and Persian. Situated on the south-eastern fringe of the main zone of the Armenian cultural space, the monasteries constituted a major centre for the dissemination of that culture in the region. They are the last regional remains of this culture that are still in a satisfactory state of integrity and authenticity. Furthermore, as places of pilgrimage, the monastic ensembles are living witnesses of Armenian religious traditions through the centuries.