Iran
This Qajar-era mosque was built for Amonulla Khan, with tiled twin minarets, 32 interior domes and two verandas.
Must-see attractions in Iran
Iran
This small shepherd's chapel has a commanding view of the Aras River. Don't be caught taking photos, though.
Iran
Just off Taleqani St, this Church of the Virgin Mary has an unusual old stone pyramid as its central dome.
Iran
The squat Gonbad-e Qaffariyeh sits forlornly in a riverside garden with a tacky trio of concrete dolphins.
Tehran
Weave your way through the bazaar to find this ornately decorated shrine to a descendant of the prophet.
Iran
This small two-storey museum houses pottery, coins and other artifacts dating from pre-Islamic times.
Iran
The 20th-century Kantur Church has a blue-brick belfry dome and sits in a tiny Russian graveyard.
Iran
One of the last remnants of medieval Neishabur is its short stretch of covered bazaar.
Iran
Just beyond Gorgan's southern city limits, Nahor Khoran is an area of woodlands and gurgling streams offering an easy, clean-air escape from the city…
Southeastern Iran
Guides claim that this small, lonely mud compound with four little towers is a caravanserai (a traditional inn with a courtyard for camel trains). In fact…
Iran
Sang-e Shir is a walrus-sized lump of rock eroded beyond recognition by the rubbing of hands over 2300 years. It was supposedly once a lion, but you’d…
Iran
Dating from the 1020s, Pir Alamdar is a circular, Seljuk-era tomb-tower in faceted pale brick, notable for its original band of Kufic inscriptions around…
Iran
In an early 20th-century 'khan's house', this modest yet well displayed museum includes ancient pottery and mannequin displays – including a barber…
Iran
In the mid 20th-century the Pahlavis swept away a former Safavid precursor to build a two-storey palace that, apart from its two Corinthian columns, is an…
Tehran
The late 19th-century building housing the first public bank in Iran sits at the east end of Imam Khomeini Sq. At the time of writing the brick building…
Iran
From a similar era to the BuAli Sina (Avicenna) Mausoleum, but architecturally more bizarre, looking like a giant child's sippy cup. There’s little reason…
Tehran
Ringed by perpetually seething traffic, Imam Khomeini Sq is not a place to linger. Little of the grandeur of the Qajar era remains here, although there is…
Iran
A steep stairway near Mashahir Sq leads down into what was once a water cistern, though it's now blocked off. Behind, what appears to be a fortress tower…
Tehran
Under construction since the 1990s, this mammoth mosque, with 230m-tall minarets, will be one of the largest in the world when eventually completed – an…
Iran
Tucked into the western corner of the Shah Abbas Caravanserai is this small museum of stuffed birds, local animals, pinned insects and pickled snakes…
Tehran
This minor attraction within the sprawling Sa’d Abad Museum Complex is one for motorheads with its well-buffed collection of Rolls Royce and Cadillac, and…
Iran
Most accessible of the region’s castle ruins is the eroded grassy lump of Dezhe Sasal, which clings wart-like to a small wooded knoll 400m west of the…
Tehran
Dating from 1892, the old Cossacks Quarters forms an impressive architectural flourish at the northern end of pedestrian Melal-e Mottahed, the street once…
Iran
Stairs to Babak Castle are located just behind this hotel, set on a lonely hill above Shoza-Abad hamlet, 6km from town.
Mausoleum of Kashef-ol-Saltaneh
Iran
This austere, grey mausoleum entombs the man who is credited with introducing tea cultivation to Iran. It houses an underwhelming museum of tea…
Iran
Within the bazaar, Ehmad Dohla Mosque, entered through an attractive tiled portal, has a Qajar-era clock tower.
Iran
The mud-walled remains of this Sassanid-era fortress overlook the mineral springs of Cheshmeh Ali.
Iran
Radkan's old ice house looks like a dripping, conical, pointed pudding of mud. It's less than 100m west of Imam Khomeini Sq.
Iran
This crumbling, two-chambered hammam from the Qajar period is in the process of being turned into a restaurant.
Iran
The fortress is used for military purposes and is firmly closed, though a tea bazaar huddles at its eastern edge.
