Iran - Andrew Burke [66]
At a practical level, Tehran has a decent choice of hotels and the best range of restaurants in Iran. There are enough museums to keep you interested, and compared with residents of many capitals, Tehranis are surprisingly welcoming. Certainly, some travellers will find Tehran’s traffic, smog and uncontrolled urban sprawl overwhelming. But persist – or better, make short repeat visits – and you’ll find it opening up to you in ever more- rewarding ways.
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HIGHLIGHTS
Take in the over-the-top opulence of the Golestan Palace, a monument to Qajar excess
Gaze in wonder at the 51,366-gem Globe of Jewels in the National Jewels Museum
Ski the slopes of Dizin and Shemshak for a fraction of what you’d pay at home
Relax Tehran-style by taking a mountain walk from Darband to Park-e Jamshidiyeh, enjoying the views, food and company en route
Gird your loins and climb aboard a motorcycle taxi for a trip across peak-hour Tehran – a white-knuckle ride you’re unlikely to forget
TELEPHONE CODE: 021
POPULATION: ABOUT 15 MILLION
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HISTORY
Archaeologists believe people have lived in this area since Neolithic times, but apart from 11th-century AD records suggesting the village produced high-quality pomegranates, little was written about Tehran until the 13th century. In his book Mo’jamol Boldan, writer Yaqoot Hamavi described Tehran as a village of Rey, then the major urban centre in the region, where ‘rebellious inhabitants’ lived in underground dwellings. He went on: ‘They not only disregard their governors, but are in constant clashes among themselves, to the extent that the inhabitants of its 12 quarters cannot visit each other’.
In 1220 the Mongols sacked Rey as they swept across Persia (Click here), executing thousands in the process. Most of those who escaped wound up in Tehran and the future capital’s first ever population explosion turned the village into a small, moderately prosperous trading centre.
In the mid-16th century Tehran’s natural setting, many trees, clear rivers and good hunting brought it to the attention of the early Safavid king, Tahmasb I. Under his patronage, gardens were laid out, brick houses and caravanserais built and a wall with 114 towers erected to protect the town and its merchants. As it continued to grow under later Safavid kings, European visitors wrote of Tehran’s many enchanting vineyards and gardens.
Threatened by the encroaching Qajars, regent Karim Khan Zand moved his army to Tehran in 1758. At the same time he refortified the city and began constructing a royal residence. Perhaps he had intended to move his capital here, but when Qajar chieftain Mohammed Hasan Khan was killed and his young son Agha Mohammed Khan taken hostage, Karim Khan decided the threat was over and abandoned the unfinished palace to return to Shiraz.
But things didn’t work out quite as Karim Khan would have liked. By 1795 he was long dead and his one-time prisoner, Agha Mohammed Khan, declared this dusty town of around 15,000 souls his capital.
As the centre of Qajar Persia, Tehran steadily expanded. By 1900 it had grown to 250,000 people, and in the 20th century into one of the most-populous cities on earth. With this growth has come an influence far greater than most people realise. The capital has fomented and hosted two revolutions, two coups d’etat and much intrigue. As the setting for the CIA’s first coup in 1953 Click here, it had a profound impact on post-WWII world politics; and as pronouncements from Tehran have been the driving force behind the growth of radical Islam since 1979, that influence has not waned.
Today it is fascinating to walk in the footsteps of that modern history: you can see the White Palace at Sa’d Abad, where the last shah hosted the CIA’s Kermit Roosevelt as they plotted the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh; visit the former US embassy now called the US Den of Espionage; gaze up at the Azadi Tower, where hundreds