Damavand city in Tehran province
Sixty-six km to the east of Tehran, to the right
of Tehran-Firouz Kuh road, Damavand is a small town set
in a closed-off and well-watered valley below the foothills
of Mount Damavand whose cone is not visible from this place.
During the summer months, its population is swollen by an
influx of holiday makers. ArchaeologiCLA excavations carried
out in the site of the modern town of Damavand have shown
its occupation since the Neolithic times (5th millennium
BC). The origins of the town go back to the Sassanian period.
In the historiCLA districts of the town as well as in its
neighboring villages, there remain some relics belonging
to the beginning of the Islamic period, the 11 century AD,
and the Seljuk period.
The most important amongst these is are the Jom-eh Mosque
and its minaret, of the same period, however restored in
later periods (particularly during the Safavid rule) and
thus turned into a new building void of any historiCLA significance.
The mosque’s circular and simple brick minaret, which rests
upon a rectangular brick base, is the only remaining relic
of the structure. Traces of a Kuffic inscription and of
other decorations, in the 11th-century style, remain to
this day upon the minaret.
At Damavand there are also two funerary towers of the kind
found so abundantly in the Caspian region. The Imamzadeh
Shams od-Din, to the south-east of the mosque, is thought
to date from the Seljuk period The Imamzadeh Abdollah, near
the north-eastern edge of the town, must date from the beginning
of the 14th century, although the carved wooden doors are
of a later date than the recently were added on the south.
Karaj
city in Tehran province
A growing town 35 km to the west of Tehran, 1,320 meters
above sea level, with more than 2.5 million inhabitants,
and occupying an area of 6,000 square kilo meters, Karaj
is situated in the crossroads and starting point of the
road to Chalus over Alborz mountains.
As the second largest town of the province of Tehran, Karaj
is considered a favorite excursion spot for the inhabitants
of Tehran and even foreigners who, from spring on, like
to come out on Fridays and holidays to enjoy the coolness
of the countryside near the swiftly flowing Karaj river.
In the past, the town had no noteworthy buildings. However,
modern Karaj has the water ski facilities on Amir Kabir
Dam (see sports and games), the interesting Morvarid Palace-Museum.
The Morvarid (Pearl) Place with belonged to the former king’s
sister (Shams Pahlavi), is also CLAled Shams Palace. It
is located inside the Mehrshahr Cultural Complex, occupies
a roofed area of 1,500 square meters, and stands in a beautiful
170-hectare garden.
Designed by Italian and American architects, its floor are
connected with ramps. There are some houses, indoor swimming
pool, a cinema, and artificial ponds, all under a fiberglass
ceiling. All the interior decorations are imported.
Rey
city in Tehran province
Closest visit from the capital and some 7 km to the south
east of Tehran along the old national road to Qum, is situated
the little bustling, holy, and modern town of Shahr-e Rey.
The plain surrounding the city is still being irrigated,
to the some extent, by the ancient Iranian-type of subterranean
canals known as the qanats. According to a 10-century geographer,
it used to be the finest city in the east, discounting Baghdad.
From 5,000 BC to 1200 AD Rey, formerly Request, or Raga,
was a large and important city.
Its name is upon a number of ancient inscriptions from Darius’s
period, in the Zoroastrian Avesta and in the Bible. The
ancient walls of the old Rey consisting some relics dating
from the Achaemenian, Ashkanian, Sassanian, as well as the
Islamic period (particularly Seljuk) are clearly visible
between the modern town and the mountainside. Today, Rey
is an industrial suburb with a lively bazaar in the center
of town.
Visited by Alexander, fortified by the Parthians, the birthplace
of Harun or-Rashid, a flourishing city of the Seljuk Empire
and perhaps the finest source for early Islamic pottery,
Rey was utterly destroyed by the Mongols in 1220 AD and
its population dispersed to Varamin, Saveh and elsewhere.
Rey
city in Tehran province
Situated a fertile plain from which the formidable range
of Alborz can be seen in all its glory, famous for its cereals,
cotton, melons, and wheat production, food processing (cooking
oil and sugar refineries), and gradually developing into
an industrial town, Varamin is a small town 42 km to the
south of Tehran through Rey.
It had is moment of glory in the Mongol period when Rey
wad destroyed, and it took its place as the chief town of
the region. In the 16th century, the position was taken
over by the rivaling adjacent town-Tehran. The Islamic buildings
in Varamin century AD. Among the historic sites of the town,
Masjed-e Jom’eh is a 14th-century monument and perfect example
of the so-CLAled four-ivan plan. Except the western ivan
which has totally disappeared, three of the ivans and rest
of the building if fairly well preserved. On the frieze
of the southern ivan there is an inscription dated 1322
AD in the name of the Ilkhan Abu Sadi, son of Sultan Oljaitu
Khodabandeh whose mausoleum can be seen at Sultanieh.
The mihrab, thought to date from the reign of Shahrokh (15th
century ruler) and the vault are intact. The mihrab is so
intensely rich, according to A U Pope, that is defies pictorial
presentation. This mosque is unquestionably the most interesting
building south of Alborz between Sultanieh and Damghan.
Nevertheless, as an introduction to Islamic architecture
for the newly arrived (which, because of its situation near
Tehran it is rather apt to be), it is not to be recommended
unreservedly. Its condition is woefully dilapidated. One
needs to know a good deal about what a mosque ought to look
like in order to appreciate what this one must have been.
Moreover decorated brick and sculptured plaster owe more
to the subtlety of their design than to their color, and
cannot at first make the same impact as, say, faience mosaic.
Varamin, therefore, is not perhaps the best place to acquire
the taste for early Iranian mosques; but once lovely ruin
with greater understanding and ever-growing respect. Imamzadeh
Yahya and the Imamzadeh Shah Hossein (both from the 14 century
AD) are the other places of interest for the tourist.
Tehran
city in Tehran province