Shiraz is the cultural capital of Iran and the city most identified with Persian poetry, wine (historically — Shiraz wine was among the most celebrated in the medieval Islamic world before Prohibition was enforced), roses and nightingales. Shiraz (population 1.9 million, capital of Fars Province) was the capital of the Persian Empire under the Zand dynasty (1750-1794 — the only major Persian dynasty actually from the Shiraz region; the Zand rulers built most of the historic city centre that visitors see today: the Arg of Karim Khan, the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, the Vakil Bazaar and Bath) and the home of the two greatest poets in the Persian literary canon: Hafez (Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī, c.1315-1390 — the most-read poet in the Persian-speaking world, whose Divan (collected poems) is the most-consulted book in Iranian households after the Quran; the ghazal form Hafez perfected — a 7-14 couplet love poem with a refrain — is the basis of all subsequent Persian lyric poetry) and Sa'di (Abu-Muhammad Muslih al-Din bin Abdallah Shirazi, c.1210-1291 — the great poet of wisdom whose Gulistan (Rose Garden) and Bustan (Orchard) are the most widely taught Persian texts in Iranian schools; the UN General Assembly building in New York has an inscription from Sa'di's Gulistan on the entrance wall — "All human beings are members of one frame, since all, at first, from the same essence came"). Shiraz is the closest major city to Persepolis (60 km northeast — the Achaemenid Persian imperial capital founded by Darius the Great in 518 BC, burned by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, the most significant archaeological site in Iran and one of the finest ancient sites in the world).
The Nasir al-Mulk Mosque (مسجد نصیرالملک — the "Pink Mosque", built 1876-1888 under Qajar rule by the order of Mirza Hassan Ali Nasir al-Mulk; the most photogenic mosque in Iran and one of the most beautiful in the world; the south ivan (the arched hall facing the courtyard) has 5 bays of stained glass windows in a geometric pattern of pink, red, green and blue; in the 2 hours after sunrise, the morning light passes through the stained glass and projects patterns of colored light across the entire floor of the winter prayer hall — the colored light carpet (sometimes described as a "rainbow prayer hall") is the most photographed interior in Iran; visitors must arrive before 9am for the best light; the mosque is an active place of worship — visitors sit quietly as light patterns move across the prayer hall over the course of an hour).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideShah Cheragh (شاهچراغ — "King of the Light", the Shia Muslim shrine in the heart of Shiraz; the shrine contains the tombs of Ahmad ibn Musa (a son of the 7th Imam Musa al-Kazim) and his brother Muhammad; the entire interior of the main shrine building is covered in a mirror mosaic (aina-kari — the technique of covering surfaces with mirror fragments, tesserae of glass mirrors, creating a kaleidoscopic reflection effect; the mirror mosaic interior of the Shah Cheragh is the most extensive and finest example of this technique in Iran, covering the domes, the walls, the columns and the ceiling of the main chamber in millions of small mirror fragments; when lit, the interior sparkles as if covered in diamonds); non-Muslim visitors may be permitted to enter with a guide and appropriate modest dress — check current access policy before visiting.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Vakil Bazaar (بازار وکیل — the Royal Market of Shiraz, built 1757-1773 by Karim Khan Zand (the founder of the Zand dynasty and the builder of most of historic Shiraz); the bazaar is the finest surviving example of the Zand-era commercial architecture: the 2-storey central hall with the brick vaulted ceiling and the 4.5 m brick columns (the columns have spiral ribbing that is unique to the Zand style), the natural cooling (the vault height creates air circulation that maintains the interior at 10-15°C below the exterior temperature); the Vakil Bathhouse (adjacent to the bazaar — the Zand-era hammam, now a museum and café; the multi-domed bathhouse interior with the plaster figures of the bathers demonstrates the traditional Iranian public bathing culture).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideHafezieh (the tomb complex of the poet Hafez (1315-1390) in the northern part of Shiraz; the octagonal marble pavilion over the tomb was built in the 18th century and redesigned in 1935 by the French architect André Godard; the marble sarcophagus is engraved with two of Hafez's ghazals (the poems about wine, love, spiritual yearning and the beloved — the beloved of Hafez's poetry is simultaneously a human lover and the divine; the interpretation of Hafez as a spiritual poet (of divine love expressed through the metaphor of earthly love) and as a secular poet (of literal wine and literal women) is still contested in Iran; Iranians visit the tomb to practice fal-e Hafez — the Persian tradition of consulting the Hafez Divan for an omen by opening it randomly and interpreting the poem on that page).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePersepolis (تخت جمشید — Takht-e Jamshid, "Throne of Jamshid"; the Achaemenid Persian Empire's ceremonial capital founded by Darius the Great c.518 BC, on the plain of Marvdasht 60 km northeast of Shiraz; UNESCO World Heritage; the most significant ancient archaeological site in Iran; the Gate of All Nations (the monumental entrance gateway with the massive human-headed winged bulls — Lamassu — built by Xerxes I; the cuneiform inscription reads "I am Xerxes, the Great King, King of Kings, King of nations containing many men, King in this great earth far and wide, son of King Darius, an Achaemenian"; the Apadana Palace (the audience hall of Darius I and Xerxes, 36 columns, each 20 m high; the bas-relief staircase showing delegations from 23 subject nations bringing tribute to the Persian emperor — the most detailed surviving representation of the multiethnic Achaemenid empire).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNaqsh-e Rostam (نقش رستم — "Picture of Rostam", 6 km from Persepolis — the cliff face with the four royal Achaemenid tombs carved directly into the rock face: the tombs of Darius I (the Great), Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I and Darius II, each with the cruciform entrance carved 15-25 m above the plain; below the tombs, five Sassanid bas-relief panels (226-651 AD) are carved into the same cliff face, including the famous Triumph of Shapur I panel (depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before the Sassanid king after his capture at the Battle of Edessa in 260 AD — the only depiction of a Roman Emperor as a captive in ancient art); the Kaaba-ye Zartosht (the "Kaaba of Zoroaster" — the square stone tower whose purpose is still debated; possibly an Achaemenid fire temple or a royal tomb).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePasargadae (پاسارگاد — the first Persian imperial capital, 90 km north of Shiraz, older than Persepolis; UNESCO World Heritage; founded by Cyrus the Great c.550 BC after his defeat of the Median empire; the most important site at Pasargadae is the Tomb of Cyrus the Great (the six-stepped podium supporting the plain stone burial chamber with the gabled roof — the most powerful and simple royal funerary monument in the ancient world; Alexander the Great visited and ordered the tomb restored after his troops plundered it; the inscription on the tomb reportedly read "O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who gave the Persians their empire. Do not grudge me this little earth that covers my body." — disputed but plausible); the Pasargadae gardens (the four-part chahar bagh garden plan that became the model for all subsequent Persian and Islamic garden design).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNarenjestan-e Qavam (the Qavam House and Citrus Garden, 1879-1886 — the finest Qajar-era residential mansion in Shiraz; built by the Qavam family (the most powerful merchant family of 19th-century Shiraz); the mansion has the most elaborate painted plaster (gach-bori) decoration in any private house in Iran: the painted ceilings (the blue and gold painted ceiling of the reception room depicts European landscapes in the Qajar-European hybrid style), the stained glass windows (the coloured glass panels creating coloured light effects on the floor similar to the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque on a smaller scale), and the formal citrus garden; the garden has the central fountain, the cypress trees and the orange trees with the blossoms visible in spring that gave rise to the Shiraz association with roses and nightingales.
The Tomb of Sa'di (سعدیه — the mausoleum of Abu-Muhammad Muslih al-Din bin Abdallah Shirazi (Sa'di), c.1210-1291; Sa'di is the other great pillar of Persian literature alongside Hafez; where Hafez is the poet of mystical love, Sa'di is the poet of wisdom and ethics: his Gulistan (Rose Garden, 1258) and Bustan (Orchard, 1257) are collections of moral tales and ethical reflections that are still taught in Iranian schools; the passage inscribed on the wall of the UN General Assembly ("Human beings are members of a whole / In creation of one essence and soul") is from the Bustan; the tomb is in a garden with an underground spring (the spring water, called "Ab-e Sa'di" (Water of Sa'di), is believed to have healing properties and is drunk by pilgrims); the carved inscription on the tomb is the opening couplet of the Gulistan.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideEram Garden (باغ ارم — "Garden of Paradise"; UNESCO World Heritage as part of the Persian Gardens designation; the garden with a documented history going back to the 11th century, redesigned under the Qashqai tribal rulers in the 19th century as a royal botanical garden; the three-storey Qajar-era Palace of Eram (1824, with the carved plaster faïades, the mirrored reception halls and the coloured tile dado panels showing hunting scenes) stands at the upper end of the garden; the ancient cypresses (the tallest cypress in the garden, known as "the sarv-e naz" — the graceful cypress — is claimed to be 3,000 years old, though 1,000 years is more likely; the Zoroastrian and pre-Islamic association of the cypress tree with eternity makes the cypress the defining tree of Persian garden culture); the formal four-part garden plan with the central water channel.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Arg of Karim Khan (ارگ کریمخان — the royal citadel of Shiraz built by Karim Khan Zand (1705-1779), the ruler of the Zand dynasty who chose Shiraz rather than Tehran as his capital; the citadel (1766-1767) was Karim Khan's personal residence — a deliberate rejection of the traditional Iranian royal lifestyle of campaigns and tents; Karim Khan called himself "Wakil" (regent) of the young Safavid king rather than king himself, emphasising his role as a servant of the people (an unusual stance in Iranian royal history); the four circular towers (one tower leans 2 m from vertical — a Shiraz version of the Pisa effect caused by the water table subsidence); the painted interiors of the residential chambers showing hunting scenes and courtly life in the Zand style.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Shiraz wine heritage (the Shiraz grape (Syrah) is named after this city — the grape variety that produces some of the world's finest red wines (Australian Shiraz from the Barossa Valley; Rhône Valley Syrah from Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie) was cultivated in the Shiraz region for at least 2,000 years before the Islamic prohibition; the wine of Shiraz was celebrated by Arab geographers of the 9th-10th centuries and exported across the Islamic world despite religious prohibition — the wine trade was maintained by Zoroastrian communities who were permitted to produce and sell wine; the poetry of Hafez is full of references to wine (sharab), which is interpreted by some as literal wine and by others as a Sufi metaphor for divine love; the modern Shiraz wine festival (which exists only in international wine regions, not in Iran itself) celebrates a wine culture that produced the grape but can no longer legally enjoy it).