Mount Damavand

Mount Damavand , the highest mountain in Iran , has for centuries attracted mountaineers , nomads and legends to its snow-covered slopes. The epic hero Fereidun wrestled and defeated the evil giant Zahakis , chaining him to a cave on the mountain peak. Villagers living near the base of the volcano still remark that Zahakis is straining to be free at the first signs of smoke or rumblings often heard deep within the mountain. On a clear day , the 18 ,600-foot cone is visible from Tehran , fifty miles away.

The Takht-e Marmar Edifice

The Takht-e Marmar (Marble Throne) structure was built by Karim Khan Zand between the years 1747 and 1751 A.H. that is in the first three years of his region. Aqa Mohammad Khan Qajar (1779-96 A.D.) decided to have it perfected. In (1791 A.D.) , following the order of this Qajar king , a great deal of building materials , pieces of painting and decorations , belonging to the Royal Palace of Karim Khan , were removed from Shiraz to Tehran to be used in the Takht-e Mannar edifice. Upon the orders of Fath Ali Shah Qajar , in (1806 A.D.) a big marble throne was made which is now to be found in the center of the main iwan of the palace. The actual name of the Marble Throne is " Takht-e Solaimaniyeh". All around the iwan , there remain lots of paintings and decorations belonging to the Qajar period. After Fath All Shah's death , the other Qajar kings followed the example of their ancestors in perfecting the decorations and adorning the buildings of the Palace

Golestan Palace

During the reign of the Safavid Shah Abbas 1 , a vast garden called Chahar Bagh (Four Gardens) , a governmental residence and a Chenarestan , (a grove of plane trees) , were created on the present site of the Golestan Palace and its surroundings. Then , Karim Khan Zand (17491779 A.D. ) ordered the construction of a citadel , a rampart and a number of towers in the same area. In the Qajar period , some royal buildings were gradually erected within the citadel; for instance , in 1813 which coincided with the fifth year of the reign of Fath Ali Shah , the eastern part of the royal garden was extended and some other palaces were built around the garden , called the Golestan Garden.

Archaeological Museum One of the most exciting discoveries in recent Iranian archaeology was this majestic statue of Darius the Great found December , 1972 , inside the palace gatehouse at Shush (Susa). It is the first known large-scale statue in the round from Iran of the Achaemenian period , and shows the king dressed in the Persian manner similar to the king dressed in the Persian manner similar to the relieves at Persepolis. Inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphics , Old Persian , Elamite and Acadians identify the statue as being Darius 1 , and state that it was made in Egypt. The head is missing , and it remains uncertain whether the king wore an Egyptian or a Persian crown.

shams-ol Emareh Palace , (19th century) , Tehran

Darius the Great ruled from 522 to 486 B.C. , and built a canal from the Nile River to the Red Sea along which this statue may have been transported on its way to Shush. Linguistic and stylistic peculiarities of the statue suggest a date for its carving during the latter part of the reign of Darius , about 490 B.C.