Art

Iranian Architecture

Persian architecture across four realms — imperial foundations, Islamic domes, Qajar palaces and the vernacular genius of desert and mountain.

22 entries

Persepolis — Ceremonial capital of the Achaemenids with grand staircases and iconic bas-reliefs.

Pasargadae — Early imperial capital featuring the Tomb of Cyrus the Great and proto-Persian garden layout.

Naqsh-e Rostam — Royal necropolis with cliff-cut tombs and Sasanian investiture reliefs.

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque — Masterpiece mosque known for its turquoise dome and exquisite interior tilework.

Goharshad Mosque — Commissioned by Queen Goharshad; renowned for its lofty iwan and calligraphy.

Dome of Soltaniyeh — One of the world’s largest brick domes; engineering marvel of its time.

Golestan Palace — Royal complex blending Persian craft with European influences.

Azadi Tower — Modern icon fusing Achaemenid and Islamic geometries.

Windcatchers of Yazd — Passive cooling towers channeling desert breezes into interiors.

Karim Khan Citadel — Hybrid palace-fortress built by Karim Khan Zand.

Chogha Zanbil — The great stepped temple of the Elamite king Untash-Napirisha, one of the best-preserved ziggurats in the world.

Takht-e Soleyman — The great fire temple of the Sasanian kings, built around a deep spring-fed lake on a volcanic plateau.

Bisotun — Darius the Great's relief and trilingual inscription, carved high on a cliff on the road from Mesopotamia to the plateau.

Jameh Mosque of Isfahan — A thousand years of Iranian architecture in one building, and the model for the four-iwan mosque.

Shah (Imam) Mosque — Shah Abbas's great mosque on Naqsh-e Jahan Square, clothed inside and out in blue tile.

Gonbad-e Qabus — A 53-metre tower of plain brick, the tallest brick tower of its age, built as the tomb of a prince-poet.

Nasir al-Mulk Mosque — The "Pink Mosque" of Shiraz, whose stained-glass windows fill the prayer hall with coloured morning light.

Tabatabaei House — A merchant's mansion of courtyards, sunken gardens and wind-catchers, a model of the Iranian house.

Eram Garden — A Shiraz garden of cypress avenues and water channels around a Qajar pavilion with tiled facades.

Masuleh — A village climbing a steep green slope, where the roof of each house is the street for the one above.

Arg-e Bam — The largest adobe complex in the world, a walled city and citadel on the Silk Road, being restored after the 2003 earthquake.

Shushtar Hydraulic System — Weirs, bridges, canals and water mills that turned the Karun river to irrigate a plain, in use since the Sasanians.