Persia's living capital — Grand Bazaar, Golestan Palace, and chelo kabab
Tehran is Iran's cosmopolitan capital of 15 million — a vast spread of modernist boulevards and bazaars backed by the snow-capped Alborz mountains. The Grand Bazaar of Tehran, one of the oldest and largest in the world, sprawls beneath domed brick ceilings for over 10 km, and the UNESCO-listed Golestan Palace tells the story of the Qajar dynasty in turquoise-tiled splendour.
Tehran replaced Isfahan as Persia's capital in 1796 when Agha Mohammad Khan of the Qajar dynasty moved the seat of power north. Transformed by the Pahlavis into a Westernised capital in the 20th century, it was then reshaped by the 1979 Islamic Revolution into today's complex, contradictory, fiercely proud city — a place where ski resorts in the Alborz sit an hour above traditional bazaars.