A country · 191 places · 27 regions

Iran, all of it.

191 curated places across 27 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque · via Wikimedia Commons

The 4 biggest regions — Isfahan Province, Tehran Province, Fars Province and Yazd Province — read below as chapters, with 23 more waiting past them.

Chapter I · Isfahan Province · 29 places

Isfahan Province

A Safavid-era mosque on Isfahan's Naqsh-e Jahan Square, prized for its pale dome that shifts color with the light. The interior tilework culminates in a dazzling peacock motif at the center of the ceiling.

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque

Isfahan Province, Iran

✦ April to May · $

Naqsh-e Jahan Square

Isfahan Province, Iran

✦ April to June or September to November · $

Grand Bazaar, Isfahan

Isfahan Province, Iran

✦ Spring · $

All 29 places in Isfahan Province →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Tehran Province · 24 places

Tehran Province

A sprawling network of covered corridors in southern Tehran that has served as the city's commercial heart for centuries. Traders here deal in everything from carpets and spices to gold and copperware, and the bazaar's guilds have long held sway over Iranian politics and economics.

✦ Autumn · $

Meet Grand Bazaar, Tehran All 24 places in Tehran Province →

Chapter III · Fars Province · 22 places

Fars Province

The ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, this terraced complex features grand staircases lined with carved reliefs of tribute-bearers. Towering columns and the Gate of All Nations recall its imperial scale.

Persepolis

Fars Province, Iran

✦ March to May · $$

Tomb of Saadi

Fars Province, Iran

✦ March–May, October–November · $

Quran Gate

Fars Province, Iran

✦ March–May, October–November · $

All 22 places in Fars Province →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter IV · Yazd Province · 14 places

Yazd Province

On the desert hills at the edge of Yazd stand two circular stone enclosures once used by the Zoroastrian community as places of excarnation, where the dead were exposed to the elements and birds rather than buried or cremated. Known as towers of silence, the roofless drums crown two low hills, with ritual buildings and cisterns clustered at their base. The practice was discontinued in the twentieth century. Visitors can climb to the towers, look out over the surrounding desert, and view a striking relic of ancient funerary custom.

✦ March–May, October–November · $

Meet Towers of Silence of Yazd All 14 places in Yazd Province →

Every place in Iran