50 Fun Facts About Tehran

Which mountain range rises directly north of Tehran?

The city climbs from about 1,100 metres in the south to over 1,800 metres in its northern suburbs, so winters differ sharply between districts.

In which year was Tehran first chosen as the capital of Iran?

Iran's capital had moved many times before; by one count Tehran became the 51st.

Which dynasty's founder, Agha Mohammad Khan, made Tehran his capital?

He distrusted Isfahan and Shiraz, whose notables were loyal to the earlier Safavid and Zand rulers, and preferred a town with little urban power of its own.

What ancient city, absorbed into Greater Tehran, was known to the Greeks as Rhages?

Ray is now Tehran's 20th municipal district and was home to the medieval physician Rhazes.

In which year was Tehran's Azadi Tower completed?

It marked the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, and its architect Hossein Amanat won the design competition while still in his twenties.

What was Tehran's Azadi Tower originally called before the 1979 revolution?

Azadi means freedom in Persian; the surrounding square was renamed at the same time.

Which material completely clads the exterior of the Azadi Tower?

An underground museum sits beneath the monument as part of the Azadi Cultural Complex.

Roughly how tall is the Milad Tower, from base to antenna tip?

Its head is a 12-storey pod whose roof sits at 315 metres, and it hosts the Fajr film festival.

In which year was the Milad Tower completed?

Construction took about eleven and a half years, and the tower was formally inaugurated in October 2008.

Who designed the Tabiat Bridge, the pedestrian bridge completed in Tehran in 2014?

She wanted it to be a place to linger rather than pass through, so the bridge curves and carries benches.

Which two parks does the Tabiat Bridge connect across the Modarres Expressway?

It won the 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, whose jury called it a breath of fresh air.

Which Tehran palace complex was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013?

It is the former royal seat of the Qajar dynasty and once stood inside the walls of Tehran's citadel.

Who was crowned in Tehran in 1926, the first Pahlavi coronation?

The 1967 ceremony crowned Farah Pahlavi as the first empress crowned in Iran's modern history.

Which Qajar ruler was assassinated in 1896 at the Abdol-Azim shrine south of Tehran?

His reign of almost 48 years brought Iran its first modern school, bank, railway and museum.

Which three Allied leaders met in Tehran in late 1943?

It was the first meeting of the Big Three, and Tehran was then under Anglo-Soviet occupation.

What was the Allied codename for the 1943 Tehran Conference?

Argonaut was Yalta, Sextant was Cairo and Terminal was Potsdam.

On what date in 1979 was the United States embassy in Tehran seized?

Fifty-two of the hostages were held for 444 days, until minutes after Ronald Reagan's inauguration.

How many days did the Tehran embassy hostage crisis last?

It ended with the Algiers Accords; the deposed shah had died in Cairo the previous summer.

Which airport, 50 km south of the city, handles Tehran's main international flights?

It was inaugurated on 1 February 2004 during the 25th-anniversary celebrations of the revolution.

In which year did Tehran's older Mehrabad Airport open?

Mehrabad now handles mainly domestic and charter flights and doubles as a military base.

In which year did the first Tehran Metro service, an express line to Karaj, begin?

Planning had begun in the 1970s; the revolution and the Iran-Iraq War stalled the project for two decades.

Roughly how many passengers does the Tehran Metro carry per day?

It is the largest metro system in the Middle East, and end cars on every train are reserved for women.

Which street, formerly Pahlavi Street, is described as the longest in the Middle East?

After the revolution it was briefly renamed for Prime Minister Mosaddegh before taking its current name.

Which Tehran ski resort is the closest in the world to a national capital?

Its highest lifts reach about 3,900 metres, higher than any European ski area, and it opened in 1976.

Which dormant volcano, visible from Tehran, is the highest peak in Iran?

In Ferdowsi's Shahnameh it is where the hero Fereydun chained the serpent-king Zahhak.

Which two football clubs share the Azadi Stadium and contest the Tehran derby?

World Soccer magazine ranked it Asia's most important derby in 2008, and foreign referees have officiated it since 1995.

Under what name was Esteghlal known when the first Tehran derby was played in 1968?

Taj means crown, a name that did not survive the revolution.

Which continental multi-sport event did Tehran host in 1974?

It was the first time the Games came to West Asia, with 3,010 athletes from 25 nations.

What was the Azadi Stadium called when the Shah opened it in 1971?

Fans' vuvuzelas have earned it the nickname of a bee swarm.

Which Iranian empress inaugurated the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in 1977?

Its Western collection, with Warhol, Pollock and Picasso, is called the most valuable outside Europe and North America.

After 1979, where was the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art's Western art kept until 1999?

One casualty was a 1977 Warhol portrait of the empress, which did not survive the revolution.

Which US president was a guest at Tehran's Niavaran Palace on 31 December 1977?

Little more than a year later the Shah and Shahbanu left Iran, leaving the palace interiors as they remain today.

Which institution is the legal custodian of the Iranian crown jewels displayed in Tehran?

In the 1930s the collection was so valuable it served as a reserve backing Iran's currency.

Which pink diamond is among the treasures held in Tehran's Treasury of National Jewels?

The name means Sea of Light; the collection also includes the Pahlavi Crown and the Kiani Crown.

In which year was the University of Tehran, Iran's oldest, officially inaugurated?

Its central campus lies on Enghelab Avenue and remains the best known of its sites.

What is the approximate population of the city of Tehran proper?

The wider metropolitan area of nearly 17 million is the largest in the Middle East.

Which group is Tehran's second-largest ethnic community?

Tehran is described as hosting more Azerbaijanis than any other city in the world.

What did the 1933 street-widening act do to Tehran's Grand Bazaar?

The old citadel and city walls were demolished four years later to make way for wide streets.

Which Tehran shopping centre is described as the largest in the world by area?

The city has more than 60 modern malls alongside the Grand Bazaar and the Bazaar of Tajrish.

Which single city is officially twinned with Tehran?

Seoul in turn has a Tehran-ro (Tehran Street) in its Gangnam district.

On which date is Tehran Day, marking the city's official capital status in 1907?

The 1907 municipal law, the Baladie, followed Iran's first constitution of 1906.

Which building style did Kamran Diba draw on for the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art?

Its rooftop wind-catcher forms sit beside Laleh Park, which was Farah Park before the revolution.

Which annual cinema event, Iran's most prominent, is regularly hosted at the Milad Tower?

Tehran's first movie theatre was opened by Mirza Ebrahim Khan back in 1904.

Roughly what share of Tehran's air pollution is attributed to cars?

The city was designed for about 300,000 cars and now has more than five million on its roads.

On whose order was Dar ol-Fonun, Tehran's pioneering 19th-century school, established?

Iran's first museum began in 1916 in a room on the north side of the Dar ol-Fonun building.

Roughly how many people live in Tehran's metropolitan area?

That makes it the largest metropolitan area in the Middle East and the 24th most populous in the world.

According to the city's official website, the name Tehran means what?

The derivation from 'Tah' (end, bottom) and 'Ran' (slope) refers to the city's position at the foot of the Alborz; linguist Zana Kamrani instead argues it means 'the warm place'.

Which Zand dynasty ruler built a palace in Tehran before moving his government to Shiraz?

He may have intended Tehran as his capital in the early 18th century; the Qajars finally made it the capital in 1786, the 51st capital in Iran's history.

What geometric shape did Tehran's new city walls of 1878 take?

Built under Dar al-Fonun's supervision, the 19-square-kilometre enclosure mimicked Renaissance European cities; the walls were demolished in 1937.

Which Castilian ambassador visited Tehran in 1404 on his way to Timur's court at Samarkand?

He described Tehran in his diary as an unwalled region; della Valle and Herbert passed through in the 1600s, calling it Taheran and Tyroan.