About Iran: Shiraz

Poets, Roses, and the Heritage of Empire

	The illustrious 1000-year-old city of Shiraz is a cultural centre and home to the famous mystic poets Saadi and Hafez. Shiraz offers you exquisite mosques, sacred shrines, tombs, lush rose gardens and, a short drive away, Takht-e Jamshid (which the Greeks called 'Persepolis') - the world famous archaeological site founded by Darius I and Xerxes in the 5th and 6th Centuries B.C. and razed by Alexander the Great over two hundred years later. The sites you will visit include the magnificent domed shrine of Shah Cheragh, a major place of pilgrimage, Narenjestan, a beautiful 19th century house and Garden, and the Hafez and Saadi Mausoleums, tombs of the medieval mystic poets. Persepolis herself capital of the mighty Persian Empire stands on the celebrated site of an Achaemenian palace built 2,500 years ago by Darius the Great, with wonderfully preserved rock reliefs and columns on a spectacular terrace. At Naghsh-e-Rostam and Naghsh-e-Rajab, spectacular cliff-face reliefs embellish the tombs of the Achaemenid kings, with Sassanid bas-reliefs and Zoroastrian monuments. Impressive excavations of an early Achaemenian capital and the site of Cyrus's tomb are found at Pasargade, and the large archaeological site at Bishapour features the remains of the palace of the Sassanid King Shahpour in a superb mountain setting. At Firouzabad are the remains of a domed palace of the 3rd century BC.
Tehran  Hamadan  Kashan  Isfahan  Yazd  Shiraz  Kerman     -   back to map