Oct 17 - Walk to the Taleghani subway station and go three stops to the National Museum. There are three parts to this museum: pre-historic, historic pre-Islam, and post-Islam. The first two sections are in the same building and display a few thousand artifacts. It is well laid out and easy to follow, and the displays are not crowded. However, they just put out as many things as they could in the circumstances, which isn’t much compared to what they could show.
I haven’t mentioned much about neolithic archaeology in Iran, but there is a lot. The sites are scattered around the country, including a few in desert areas that today are inhospitable. This probably says something about the change in climate from 6000 BCE until now. There is a cluster of sites on the southwest edge of the Zagros Range, where the topography drops off into the Tigris and Euphrates lowlands. Not surprising, considering that some of the first evidence of town construction also occurred in this region. It is in this area that the city of Susa (possibly founded around 4000 BCE), a capital of the old Elamite civilization, became an important center throughout the ancient period and remains inhabited today.
A model of an ancient style mud brick house, imagined from archaeological remains of such structures.
A repaired clay guardian bull, found at the Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat (30 km away from Susa), late 2nd Millenium BCE. Can’t really see it but there is an Elamite inscription on its back, talking about the king of Anshan and Susa. Cyrus the Great initially called himself ‘king of Anshan’, before changing his title to ‘king of Persia’.
One of the most interesting items, in my opinion, was this damaged statue of Darius the Great. The inscriptions, both on the robes and pedestal, are in cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The statue must have served some diplomatic purpose between the Achaemenid Empire and Egypt.
One of the gold tablets found in a stone box underneath the Apadana in Persepolis (see Day 190). It is written in cuneiform, in three languages, and tells who commanded the structure to be built.
Iran has many salt mines, some of which have been active since at least Sassanian times. The head of a body found a mine near Zanjan is shown above. He must have been an inspector or such important person, as it has a gold earring, and their clothing was decent quality. Occasionally people were murdered and thrown into the mine, which would explain how this person ended up there.
A great example of fine plaster carving work, from the Seljuk Dynasty. I didn’t take many pictures here, as there are already so many photos of Persian Islamic art already on this site. But I will mention that the Post-Islamic Museum was well ordered, going from early, pre-reform times to Qajar Dynasty, with plenty of maps to show how Iran changed its political geography over time.
This ornate gate, next to the National Museums, leads to many important government buildings, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Down the street from the museums begins a part of town with restricted vehicle access. Unless you want to walk for many blocks, there are large golf cart type vehicles that function as share taxis. We took one down to the bazaar area.
The main gate of the Tehran bazaar. Outside, there were riot police lined up, waiting for trouble. However, we did not see any protests.
This is called a timcheh, or a covered courtyard within the bazaar. This one, called Timcheh-e Hajeb-od-Dowleh, is quite famous and was constructed in the Qajar Dynasty.
On to Golestan Palace. This is the most important site of historical interest in Tehran and was the official residence of the rulers during the Qajar Dynasty. ‘Golestan’ means ‘place of the roses’. It was first built in the 16th century, during Safavid times, but rebuilt later.
Much of the exterior tilework reflects Qajar style. Shown is part of the Iranian Painting Gallery, and the Khalvat-e-Karim Khani. The latter was constructed in 1759 in Zand Dynasty by Karim Khan. It now houses the tombstone of the last Qajar ruler, Nasser-al-Din Shah, who was not a particularly good ruler. He spent a lot of his time getting royal feted in Europe and reciprocating with lucrative contracts for foreign companies pushing to operate in Iran.
From the stairwell leading up to the Reception Hall.
Many of the Qajar and Pahlavi rulers were crowned here, in the Coronation Room. There are several thrones present, many of which were made for movies shot on site and left here after filming.
The Hall of Brilliance, with a lot of mirror tile work.
The Iranian Painting Gallery. Note the ugly modern building behind. The first Shah of the Pahlavi Dynasty, Reza Shah, despised the Qajar family and destroyed many of the buildings of this complex, replacing them with modern ones.
A detail of exterior tilework.
Building of the Windtowers (Emarat-e Badgir), with the only tiled wind towers in Iran.
A room in the Almas Hall, with one of the thrones made for a movie shoot.
There was a family here, doing a dress-up portrait while in Qajar-era special event clothing.
The Hall of Mirrors (Talar-e Aineh), seen from across the fountain.
Take the metro back to the Iranshahr district, where our hotel is. It is a few blocks from what is now called the Den of US Espionage, the building of the former US Embassy. I still remember videos and photos of the day people broke through the gates and invaded the grounds, taking US citizens as hostages.
Janet gives the whole thing a thumbs down. We did not go inside, as it was late, but one can take a tour and learn about what was supposedly going on in there prior to 1979.
A propaganda painting on the exterior wall.
The US flag, reimagined.
I agree with this one. French fries are not really food.