Category: City

Shahr-e Kord

Shahr-e Kord, capital of the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiarí, is the largest city in the province and is 90 km from Isfahan. This city is known for its natural environment, its cold winters, waterfalls and rivers, and especially with 2070 m of altitude, as the «roof of Iran». The town has a ski resort (Bardeh) and several natural lagoons and ponds that make the area suitable for hiking in summer.

If you are passionate about mountains, the Silk Road, mountaineering, skiing, anthropology, nomadism, historical landscapes and the fascinating culture of the Middle East, SITO Travel will help you organize your trip to Iran. Contact us because our experience is born and developed in the field.

Semnan

The capital of the province of the same name, Semnan, is located at the foot of the Alborz Mountains. The textile and carpet production are the most important industries in the city. Semnan was a stopping point on the Silk Road.

The city offers various cultural and recreational activities, historical and religious sites, festivals, gardens and parks, colleges and universities. The city is the cultural and political capital of the province of Semnan.

Sari

Sari is the capital of the Mazandaran province, located north of the Alborz mountain range and on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. The name of the city comes from Saruyeh, son of Farkhan the Great, king of Tabaristan.

The city was a regional capital under the Sassanids. In the 7th century, Farkhan the Great rebuilt it and named it Saruyeh in honor of his son. It was then that the city took the name Sari and became the capital of Tabaristan. Sari regained its glory when Aqa Mohammad Shah Qajar proclaimed it the capital of his empire on March 21, 1782, on the occasion of the Persian New Year. The Qajar capital was later transferred to Tehran by Fath Ali Shah because it was located in the center of a region where wars were incessant. The language spoken in Sari is Mazandarani, of Caucasian descent, practiced mainly by the elderly and those who come from rural areas to sell their products in the market.

Sanandaj

The origins of the Kurds go back to an Indo-European people settled in the Kurdistan region. Kurds are members of an ethnic and linguistic group living in Iraq, Syria, southeastern Anatolia, and the Zagros Mountains in western Iran. Most Kurds live in contiguous regions of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, a loosely defined geographic area called Kurdistan. In both Iran and Iraq these entities are officially recognized: the western Iranian province of Kurdistan and the autonomous Kurdish culture, in addition to poetry, traditional clothing, architecture and festivals, constantly maintains a musical form that is still practiced by Kurdish families in Iran. It is curious to know that in Iranian Kurdistan there is a culture linked to the production of pomegranates and that during the harvest, every year the villages organize a party in which the women carry the first pomegranates on a copper tray and the men attend the parade. Playing euphoric music on the typical Kurdish musical instrument, ‘the sitar’. Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Kurdish is an Iranian language similar to Persian and Pashtun. The Kurdish population is estimated to be 30-40 million people, including communities in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Syria, and Europe.

Rasht

The capital of the Guilán province and the largest city on the Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea. It is an important trade center between the Caucasus, Russia and Iran. Imports and exports between the countries of the Caspian Sea coast are carried out through Bandar-e Anzali (port of Anzalí).

Historically, Rasht was an important transportation hub that linked Iran with Russia and Europe, and for this reason it was known as the “Gate of Europe.” The history of the city dates back to the 13th century, but its modern history dates back to the time of the Safavids, when Rasht was an important silk trading center with many textile workshops.

Ramsar

A city in the Mazandaran province, located on the Caspian Sea coast, known as Sakhtsar in the past. The Ramsar natives are Guilakíes (from Guilán province), although there are also Mazandaraní among them.

Ramsar is a popular seaside resort for Iranian tourists also offering attractions such as: hot springs, the lush green forests of the Alborz Mountains, the Pahlaví Holiday Palace and the Ramsar Hotel. 27 kilometers south of Ramsar and 2,700 meters above sea level in the Alborz Mountains is the village of Javaher Deh, which is an important viewpoint of the Ramsar area.

Recognition of “wetlands of international importance” in the Environmental Code (Art. L, 336-2)

Rafsanjan

Rafsanjan, an ancient city in the Kerman province, is the Iranian center for the cultivation and trade of pistachios. In addition, it is an important carpet weaving center.

Copper is another important Rafsanjan product found in the Sarcheshmeh copper mines. This city is known more under the name of “city of the pistachios”.

Qom

The second religious pilgrimage site, after Mashhad and the first Shiite theological center in Iran, with its large golden dome it is one of the most visited cities in the country. Qom, the capital of the homonymous province, is 100 miles south of Tehran on the edge of the central desert. The socio-economic activities of this former rural market and cotton center are mainly based on the pilgrimage and shrine of Fatima Masuma: sister of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of the Shiites, buried in Mashhad.

The city, founded in the early 8th century, gradually established itself with Ray and Kashan as one of the main religious centers in the country. Following the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, the city later benefited from the protection of the descendants of Tamerlane. In the 16th century, the Safavids (1501-1722) made it their winter capital. At the beginning of the 20th century, during the Iranian constitutional revolution in 1905, Qom was home to many political opponents of the Qajar dynasty. With the resurgence of the traditional school, the protests of the clerics of the last shah regime intensified under the leadership of Mosaddeq (1951-1953), the mullahs called their followers to rebellion, as did Ayatollah Khomeini (1898- 1989). Qom, in addition to being a holy city, plays an important role in the modern history of Iran, especially during the first steps of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Qeshm

Qeshm Island, with a length of 100 kilometers and an area of ​​1,500 kilometers, is the largest island in the Persian Gulf, twice the size of Bahrain. This island, known under the name of the Persian Gulf dolphin for its shape in satellite images is home to several coastal towns, mostly inhabited by fishermen and shipyards where large wooden boats, called “Lenj”, are built. The most important crafts on the island are the making of Lenj, traditional boats and embroidered fabrics. Make Lenj is the oldest industry in southern Iranian ports. This industry and the methods of making Lenj are passed down from generation to generation on this island. Qeshm Island is a great exporter of salt: the 6 km long Namakdan Salt Cave, very spectacular, with its colors and salt crystals that descend from the roofs.

Qazvin

During the Persian Empire, a 3000-kilometer highway was built called the Persian Royal Road by order of Darius I that connected various satrapies from present-day Iran to the Mediterranean Sea, passing through present-day Turkey. The Persian Royal Road was part of the greater trade route known as the Silk Road that stretched from the city of Ecbatana in Hamedan to the Aegean Sea of ​​Smyrna in Turkey.

Qazvin has its roots in the heyday of trade on the Silk Road in Iran. However, with the transfer of the capital of the Safavids from Tabriz to this city, it also became a political and commercial center. In the early years of the Islamic era, Qazvin served as a base for Arab forces. Destroyed by Genghis Khan (13th century), the Safavid monarchs made Qazvin the capital in 1548 and after half a century, they moved it to Isfahan in 1598. During the Qajar dynasty and then the contemporary period, Qazvin has always been one of the most important government centers due to its proximity to Tehran.