Fars
فارسThe heartland that gave Persia its name: Persepolis, Pasargadae, and Shiraz, the city of Hafez and Saadi.
Fars is ancient Pars, Persis to the Greeks, the homeland of the Achaemenid kings. Cyrus the Great is buried at Pasargadae, and Darius the Great began the palace city of Persepolis, burned by Alexander in 330 BCE. Five centuries later Ardashir, founder of the Sasanian dynasty, rose here too.
Shiraz, the provincial capital, is the city of gardens, roses and poets. Saadi and Hafez are buried here, and readers visit their tombs every day.
In the Shahnameh
Persepolis is still called Takht-e Jamshid, the Throne of Jamshid, after the legendary king of the Shahnameh's golden age.
Cities and towns
Shirazشیراز
The city of gardens and poets
Marvdashtمرودشت
The plain of Persepolis
Firuzabadفیروزآباد
Near Ardashir's round city, the first Sasanian capital
Landmarksبناها و نشانهها
Persepolis
تخت جمشیدThe ceremonial palace city of the Achaemenid kings
Tomb of Hafez
آرامگاه حافظThe poet's tomb in a garden in Shiraz
Pasargadae
پاسارگادThe tomb of Cyrus the Great
Fars through time
Iranian historyElam and the first citiesعیلام
Long before the Persians, the lowlands of Khuzestan and the highlands of Fars were home to Elam, a civilisation with its own language, gods and kings, centred on the city of Susa.
- Cyrus the Great founds Pasargadae
- Death of Cyrus the Great
- Darius I begins building Persepolis
- Persepolis burned after Alexander's conquest
- Death of Hafez in Shiraz
- Present pavilion built, designed by André Godard
- Inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage site
- Inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage site
Stories from hereداستانها
The Asiatic lion and the Lion and Sun
Iran's lions disappeared in the 1940s, but for centuries a lion holding a sword beneath a rising sun stood for the Iranian state.
The Persian onager
The wild ass of the plateau gave its name, gur, to the most famous royal hunter in Persian legend, and a pun on that name to Khayyam.
The nightingale and the rose
A plain brown bird with an extraordinary voice became the lover of Persian poetry, forever singing to a rose that does not answer.
The Caspian horse
A small, fine-boned horse found pulling carts near the Caspian in the 1960s, and argued by some to echo the horses carved at Persepolis.
Elam and the first cities
Long before the Persians, the lowlands of Khuzestan and the highlands of Fars were home to Elam, a civilisation with its own language, gods and kings, centred on the city of Susa.
The Achaemenids
From Cyrus to Darius III, the first Persian empire stretched from the Aegean to the Indus and left behind Persepolis, the Cyrus Cylinder and a model of kingship the region would long remember.
The Sasanians
For four centuries the Sasanian kings ruled an empire of fire temples, rock reliefs and brick palaces, the last great Iranian empire before Islam.
The Timurids
Timur's campaigns were brutal, but his heirs made Samarkand and Herat capitals of Persian painting, poetry, astronomy and architecture.
Afsharids, Zands and Qajars
A soldier-king who sacked Delhi, a regent who rebuilt Shiraz, and a dynasty that made Tehran the capital and lived through Iran's Constitutional Revolution.
The Pahlavi century and after
Two Pahlavi shahs built railways, universities and a centralised state, while poets, novelists and film-makers created a new Persian culture. The era ended with the revolution of 1979.
Jamshid and his cup
The brilliant king who gave his people Nowruz, then lost everything to pride. Plus the famous world-revealing cup, which belonged to someone else first.
Village and tribal weaving
Woven from memory rather than from paper, on looms that sometimes travel, village and tribal rugs make up much of Iran’s weaving.
Kilim, soumak and jajim
Not every Persian rug has a pile. The flatweaves of villages and tents are lighter, quicker and often bolder.