After having finished our visit to the Archaeological Museum and whilst we were waiting for the bus some of us followed Masoud so as to have a brief glimpse of the Darvâzeh Bâgh-e Melli entrance portal just a few metres away from the Museum. The extreme heat made the short walk feel like a never ending adventure but it was worth it because what we came across was an incredibly beautiful artistic piece on either side.
The tile decorated portal was built in 1922 under the orders of Rezâ Shah and it provided access to a quâdjar building which is now occupied by the War Ministry, similarly to many other buildings in the surrounding area, which have also been occupied by various Governmental offices. The pedestrian avenue which crossed it was particularly ample giving it all a rather "royal-like" touch.
We then headed towards a fairly known and luxurious hotel restaurant where we had our first real Iranian cuisine dish - a "khoresh" (a sort of meat stew eaten with saffron rice) preceded by a wide variety of salads which are normally eaten with yogurt.
Because we were to take off from the former airport, Mehrâbâd now used for domestic flights and the traffic was intense we just managed to briefly stop at the Azadi Monument square, not before having taken some pictures from inside the bus. The images of Iman Komeyni and the leader of the Revolution Khâmene'i seemed to be just everywhere we looked and although I was beginning to get used to their presence their imposing looks were still impressive.
Designed by an Iranian and built by an English construction team, the 45 metre high Monument standing on a huge roundabout is unmistakably a noticeable building considered to be one of the late Shah's extravaganzas.
Strongly influenced by the 14th century Timurid architecture in the intersecting rib work, it has equally been influenced by 12th century Seljuk decoration in the turquoise- coloured glazed brick against the white Hamadan granite.
I felt we should have stayed in Tehran for at least another day as we were driving to the airport on our way to the next stop - Shiraz, though I could clearly understand the time limitations bearing in mind how short the trip was ... but (still...) ... I was getting "attached" to the capital city ...
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