The earliest reference to the city, as Tirazis, is on Elamite clay tablets dated to 2000 BC. In the 13th century, Shiraz became a leading center of the arts and letters, thanks to the encouragement of its ruler and the presence of many Persian scholars and artists. Shiraz was the capital of Persia during the Zand dynasty from 1750 until 1781, as well as briefly during the Saffarid period.

Shiraz is known as the city of poets, wine and flowers. It is also considered by many Iranians to be the city of gardens, due to the many gardens and fruit trees that can be seen in the city. Shiraz has had major Jewish and Christian communities. The crafts of Shiraz consist of inlaid mosaic work of triangular design; silver-ware; pile carpet-weaving and weaving of kilim, called gilim and jajim in the villages and among the tribes.

In Shiraz industries such as cement production, sugar, fertilizers, textile products, wood products, metalwork and rugs dominate. Shirāz also has a major oil refinery and is also a major center for Iran’s electronic industries: 53% of Iran’s electronic investment has been centered in Shiraz.

Hamadan has a green mountainous area in the foothills of the 3574-meter Alvand Mountain, in the midwest part of Iran. The city is 1850 meters above sea level. According to archaeologists and historians, this ceramic producing city has a long historical record dating back 7500 years to ancient Persia, as revealed by excavations in recent years at Ecbatana Hill, Gyan in Nahavand and Nushijan in Malayer in Hamedan Province.
During the invasion of Mongols, only seven craftsmen survived the barbaric onslaught and these artisans managed to revive the ceramics industry once again.



As you stroll through the ancient city, you see how people from all walks of life are heavily involved in their ancestors’ tradition of creating works of art.
The majority of local residents earn their bread and butter from this craft ranging from utensils to decorative items.
The Khoshuei Brothers are among the outstanding artisans of Lalejin who have created the most significant works of art over the last half a century.These craftsmen not only have preserved the traditional Persian arts but also have introduced a number of innovations themselves.



Most foreign and domestic tourists are enthusiastic to purchase local handicrafts such as ceramics, leather products, traditional Iranian glasses, kilims, wooden crafts and a variety of other traditional items.
Deputy Director of the Hamedan Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization, Behjat Abbasi said, “With 900 workshops and 3900 employees, Lalejin is the capital city of ceramics in Iran.”

According to the official, pottery production in recent years has undergone a process of major change, including changes in coloring compounds both in traditional and industrial paintings, and the introduction of modern furnaces to replace the traditional ones.”

The founding of Tabriz is shrouded in mystery and myth. Various sources name the city as the possible site of the Biblical Garden of Eden.

According to some sources, including Encyclopedia Britannica, the name Tabriz derives from “tap-riz” (“causing heat to flow” in Iranian languages), from the many thermal springs in the area. Other sources claim that in A.D. 246, to avenge his brother’s death, king Khosraw I of Armenia defeated Ardashir I of the Sassanid Empire and changed the name of the city from Shahistan to Tauris, deriving from “ta-vrezh” (“this revenge” in Grabar). In A.D. 297, it became the capital of Tiridates III, king of Armenia.

Tabriz was the city where the Constitutional Revolution of Iran started in 1906 and where its leaders, Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan came from. An American who died defending the Constitutional Revolution, Howard Baskerville, is buried in Tabriz.

Tabriz City Hall, built in 1934, by Arfa’ol molk

Because of the location of Tabriz (as a gate to the west for Iran), many signs of modern life in Iran have first appeared in this city. Because of this, Iranians have described Tabriz as a “City of firsts”.
These include:

• The first printing house of Iran was founded in Tabriz (1811).
• The first modern school of Iran was founded in Tabriz by Hassan Roshdieh (1888). The language of instruction was Persian and Azari Turkish.
• The first Iranian special school for deaf children was founded in Tabriz by Jabbar Baghcheban (1924).
• The first Iranian special school for blind students was founded in Tabriz by a German mission (1926).
• The first Iranian kindergarten was founded in Tabriz by Jabbar Baghcheban (1923).
• The first modern-style municipality and city hall in Iran were founded in Tabriz.
• Tabriz Chamber of Commerce was the first of its kind founded in Iran (1906).
• The first public libraries in modern Iran were founded in Tabriz.
• The first movie theater in Iran was founded in Tabriz (1900). Also the first movie theater in Tehran was founded by a Tabrizi (1921).
• Tabriz was the first city in Iran that got a Telephone system (about 1900).

The famous Iranian historian, Ahmad Kasravi, was born in a nearby village called Hokmavar.
Samad Behrangi, a famous writer and musicians, as well as Ali Salimi, Vahid Houseini, and Bigjeh-Khani were Tar (lute) specialists from this city.

Constitutionalists of Tabriz.
The two men in the center are Sattar Khan & Bagher Khan

After World War II, the communist Azerbaijan People’s Government in North Western Iran established with its capital at Tabriz. The new communist government, under the leadership of Jafar Pishevari, held power for a year from 1946 to 1947.

With a population of 1,600,000, Tabriz is Iran’s Fourth largest city, after Tehran, Mashhad and Esfahan.

Kashan is one of the oldest, most attractive and prosperous oasis town in Iran with a rich history. It is famous for manufacturing carpets, silk and other textiles.

With 183 historical buildings Kashan is registered as national heritage.
Fin Garden (a 16th-century garden with natural springs, constructed by Shah Abbas),
Agha Bozorg Mosque (Famous for its architectural and constructional techniques) and
House of Borujerdi, where a velvet-weaving workshop exists are famous tourist attractions.

Kashan is famous for its annual harvest of roses (in the middle two weeks of May) from which rose water & rose oil are made.

Agha Bozorg Mosque

Khashan carpets are counted among the world’s finest carpets. With Kerman and Tabriz, Kashan has been the principal source for the collector of special pieces—personage rugs, symbolic rugs, and ornate prayer rugs. Kashan carpets are asymmetrically knotted on silk or cotton foundations, depending upon the fiber of the pile.

Kashan has an estimated population of 300.000.

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Esfahan City had a population of 1,583,609 and the Esfahan metropolitan area had a population of 3,430,353 in the 2006 Census, the second most populous metropolitan area in Iran after Tehran.

The cities of Najafabad, Khaneh Esfahan, Khomeini-shahr, Shahin-shahr, Zarrinshahr, Mobarakeh, Falavarjan and Fouladshahr all constitute the metropolitan city of Esfahan. Esfahan is located on the main north-south and east-west routes crossing Iran, and was once one of the largest cities in the world. It flourished from 1050 to 1722, particularly in the 16th century under the Safavid dynasty, when it became the capital of Persia for the second time in its history. Even today, the city retains much of its past glory. It is famous for its Islamic architecture, with many beautiful boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, mosques, and minarets.
This led to the Persian proverb Esfahan nesf-e jahan ast: “Esfahan is half of the world”.

Photo – Masoud Alinaghian

The Naghsh-e Jahan Square in Esfahan is one of the biggest city squares in the world and an outstanding example of Iranian and Islamic architecture. It has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The city also has a wide variety of historic monuments ranging from the Sassanid to the Safavid dynasties.

Remaining Islamic architectural sites were built from 11th to the 19th century while older pre-Islamic monuments date back to 1000 B.C.

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Now Mashhad is notably known as the resting place of the Imam Reza (Ali ibn Musa al-Rida). A shrine was later built there to commemorate the Imam, which in turn gave rise to increasing demographic development.

The city is located at 36.20º latitude and 59.35º east longitude, in the valley of the Kashaf River near Turkmenistan, between the two mountain ranges of Binalood and Hezar-masjed. The city benefits from the proximity of the mountains, having very cold winters, pleasant springs, mild summers, and beautiful autumns. It is only about 250 km (156 miles) from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

The city is the administrative centre of Mashhad County (or the shahrestan of Mashhad) as well as the somewhat smaller district (bakhsh) of Mashhad. The city itself, excluding parts of the surrounding bakhsh and shahrestan, is divided into 13 smaller administrative units, with a total population of almost 2,5 million.

Mashhad consists mainly of people of Iranian descent. There are also over 20 million pilgrims who visit the city every year.

Abadan is named for Abbad, a member of the Abbasid dynasty who founded the city in the 8th century. It originally developed as a port city under the Abbasids’ rule, but it was not until the 20th century that rich oil fields were discovered in the area. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company built their first oil refinery in Abadan, starting in 1909 and completing it in 1913. By 1938, it was the largest in the world.

To this day it remains a vast facility for refining petroleum. In September 1980, Abadan was almost overrun during a surprise attack on Khuzestan by Iraq, marking the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War. For 18 months Abadan was beseiged, but never captured, by Iraqi forces. Much of the city, including the oil refinery, was badly damaged or destroyed by the siege and by bombing. Previous to the war, the city’s civilian population was about 300,000, but before it was over most of the populous had sought refuge elsewhere in Iran.

After the war, the biggest concern was the rebuilding of Abadan’s oil refinery. In 1993 the refinery began limited operation, and by 1997 it reached the same rate of production it was at before the war.
In 2005, the population was estimated to be at 415,139. The civilian population of the city dropped to near zero during the eight-years Iran–Iraq War. In 1992, only 84,774 had returned to live in the city. By 2001, the population had jumped to 206,073, only to double in the past five years.

The Persian Gulf was a focus of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran War, in which each side attacked the other’s oil tankers. In 1991, the gulf gave its name to the U.S.-led ejection of Iraqi forces from Kuwait, called the Persian Gulf War or the Gulf War even though most of the action took place on land.

The Achaemenid Empire (Persian: هخامنشیان) or Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 BCE) Map

The Persian Gulf is rich with good fishing grounds, extensive coral reefs, and abundant pearl oysters, but its ecology has come under pressure from industrialisation, and in particular, repeated petroleum spillages during recent wars.
This inland sea of some 251,000 km² is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz; and its western end is marked by the major river delta of the Arvand River (Persian: اروندرود) or Shatt al-Arab (Coast/Beach of the Arabs), which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris.

Its length is 989 kilometres, with Iran occupying most of the northern coast and Saudi Arabia most of the southern coast.
The Persian Gulf is about 56 kilometres wide at its narrowest, in the Strait of Hormuz. The waters are overall very shallow, with a maximum depth of 90 metres and an average depth of 50 metres.

Countries with a coastline on the Persian Gulf are (clockwise, from the north): Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar on a peninsula off the Saudi coast, Bahrain on an island, Kuwait and Iraq in the northwest. Various small islands lie within the Persian Gulf.

The Persian Gulf and its coastal areas are the world’s largest single source of crude oil and related industries dominate the region. Al-Safaniya, the world’s largest offshore oilfield, is located in the Persian gulf. Large gas finds have also been made with Qatar and Iran sharing a giant field across the territorial median line (North Field in the Qatari sector; South Pars Field in the Iranian sector). Using this gas, Qatar has built up a substantial liquified natural gas (LNG) and petrochemical industry.

The oil-rich countries (excluding Iraq) that have a coastline on the Persian Gulf are referred to as the Persian Gulf States.
Iraq’s egress to the gulf is narrow and easily blockaded consisting of the marshy river delta of the the Arvand River or Shatt al-Arab, which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers, where the left (East) bank is held by Iran.

Antique map of the Persian Gulf by van Keulen (FIRST EDITION 1753)