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QAZVIN
Qazvin
- like Ardabil, Esfahan, Mashhad, Neishabur, Shiraz, and Sultanieh
- was in its day (in the 16th century AD under the Safavid
Tahmaseb I) the capital of Iran. Already to the west of Tehran and
the capital of a province of the same name and with a population of
nearly 362,208 inhabitants, it lies in an altitude of 1,800 meters
above sea level in the northwest corner of the great central plateau
of Iran, in the angle formed by the converging Alborz and Zagros mountain
systems. Not unduly hot in summer, its cold in winter is often severe.
Under such climatic conditions, peasants are growing and producing
pistachio, almond, hazelnut, grapes, apple, and walnut.
It is
130 km to the northwest of Tehran by a highway and rail, as well as
210 km to the northeast of Hamadan on a first class asphalt road.
Much of its importance is due to the fact that it is on a road junction.
It is situated on the great Khorassan highway from Baghdad to Tehran
and beyond, at the point where the route to Rasht and Anzali branches
off to the northwest.
Existence
of numerous historic sites in such a town on the tourist's way to
Sultanieh and Tabriz, the Caspian or Hamadan would justify a halt.
The town can even be the goal of a special excursion from Tehran (one
and a half hours on an excellent highway). Qazvin has been devastated
by earthquakes more than once, and what remains is only a shadow of
its former splendor, although there are still some fine Safavid and
Seljuk structures intact. It has been flourishing rapidly after the
victory of the Islamic Revolution, and become the center of many modern
agro-industrial complexes and universities.
Jam'e
Kabir Mosque
The
most interesting buildings of Qazvin (or even of Iran, according to
some historians) is the Friday Mosque (Masjid-e Jom'eh), now called
Masjid-e Jam'e Kabir, with four ivans round a large central
courtyard and an area of more than 4,000 square meters, located in
the west of Shohada Street. The square hall of prayer (known as the
Khomar Tash prayer hall and dome) in the southern ivan has
a mihrab of a peculiar marble that seems to have magnetic qualities;
the schoolboys will show you how pebbles stick to its surface. The
mosque was built in 1106-1153, but several times enlarged and improved,
notably under Shah Abbas the Great. Some even claim that it was founded
by the Abbasid caliph Harun or Rashid in the late 18th
century, on the ruins of a Sassanian fire temple. The Kuffic inscription
on a frieze below the pendentives has recently been expertly restored.
Two magnificent lovely minarets face the northern 11-m by 11.5 m portal
ivan standing on a higher level, which was restored by Shah
Abbas. The mosque comprises a portal, a facade and a vast courtyard.
The most ancient part of the mosque is Masjid-e Haruni, which adjoins
the entrance corridor. On the site of this simple domed mosque, there
seems to have originally existed a four arched fire temple.
The
Prophet's Mosque
The
next place worthy of visiting is Masjid on-Nabi (the Prophet's Mosque,
known as Masjid-e Shah or the Royal Mosque until the downfall of Pahlavi
dynasty) located in the south of Imam Khomeini Street. Apart from
being in the heart of bazaar, it is a 19th-century Qajar
creation (during the reign of Fath Ali Shah) which will forcibly remind
you of the mosques of Shiraz, particularly Masjid-e Vakil, because
of its ceramic floral decorations and tile mosaics. The magnificent
four ivans round a large central courtyard are richly decorated
with colorful tiles and Kuffic inscriptions.
Madraseh
Heidariyeh
Madraseh
Heidariyeh, a seminary school in Balaghi Alley 250 m south-east of
the Ali Qapu, was a beautiful little Madraseh built in early twelfth
century (thus a Seljuk work) with a square hall on the plan of a Sassanian
fire temple. But whereas a Sassanian fire temple was set in the center
of a courtyard, the Seljuk practice, true to Islam, was for the hall
to face Mecca. Perhaps the finest Kuffic inscription in relief in
all Iran is in its stucco frieze. Its carved very attractive stucco
mihrab is massively rich and one of the loveliest pieces of
Seljuk art extant. Of the main construction, there remains only a
roofless brick prayer hall.
Imamzadeh
Hossein
The
Mausoleum of Imamzadeh Hossein (also known as Shahzadeh Hossein),
the direct son of the Eighth Imam in the center of the cemetery of
the martyrs of the Islamic Revolution and the Imposed War of Iraq
against Iran to the south west of the town, has a magnificent blue
cupola preceded by a portal with six small minarets, in the best baroque
style. Hossein was, according to local legend, killed when a roof
fell on him after performing a miracle. According to another legend,
he fell sick, died, and was buried to Qazvin when accompanying his
father to Khorassan. His shrine has long been an attraction for pilgrims
and lies within the cemetery, paved with tombstones and surrounded
by high, arcaded walls. The elaborately decorated octagonal domed
building over his tomb, dating in part from the reign of Shah Tahmasp
(1524-76) when Qazvin was the Safavid capital, was erected, according
to a tiled inscription, by command of his daughter, Zainab Begum.
The latest date to be seen in the mausoleum is 1588 AD, which coincides
with reign of Shah Tahmasp the Safavid, and is carved upon the doors
of the portico and the harem. A second date, i.e. 1630 AD,
can be found at the end of a historical mosaic inscription near the
cemetery. However, the mirror work of the talar and some of
the faience tiling dates from the 19th century.
Mustawfi's
Mausoleum
Not
far from Madraseh Heidariyeh in Mustawfi Street, is the mausoleum
of the Qazvini historian Hamdollah Mustawfi (c 1281-1350), a follower
of the first world historian Rashid-ad Din. Under the building, there
is a crypt with the historian's tomb in it. Mustawfi was also a geographer,
and his Zafar Nameh (Book of Victory, 1335) was one of the
many continuations of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh by which Persian
authors since the eleventh century have aspired to literary and national
immortality. This fourteenth-century structure consists of a brick
base, a circular body, a tile inscription, two bands of stalactite
works and, higher up, a pointed conical dome which has recently been
decorated with a tile covering in the Mongol style.
For
the traveler, however, Mustawfi's tomb merits special homage for his
cosmological and geographical compendium Nuz'hat ol-Qulub (Hearts
Delight, 1340), a book treating of the contemporary notions concerning
the origins and compositions of the universe, with a useful description
of the state of contemporary Iran city by city.
Ali
Qapu Portal
The
only remaining parts of the lofty structure of Ali Qapu in Qazvin,
once as highly reputed as the present Ali Qapu of Esfahan, are the
portal and its azure mosaic-tile. Thulth inscription by the famous
calligrapher Ali Reza Abbassi. According to the text of the inscription,
the Ali Qapu palace counts as one of the important monuments dating
from the reign of Shah Tahmasp I and Shah Abbas the Great. Its concluding
section containing the date of the construction has disappeared. The
present portal was the entrance leading to the royal palace. There
remain two side-rooms flanking the portal, which also possesses a
large vestibule. The side rooms of the entrance door had once served
as the Royal Naqqareh Khaneh (Drum House), and the guards posts.
Chehel
Sutun
Located
in a park in the center of the town (Azadi Square), this is a small
palace of the Safavid period. Then known as the kolah farangui,
actually it was the royal palace of Shah Tahmasb built on plans provided
by a Turk architect. It is a two-storied building, characteristic
of the arcaded pavilions of the period, such as those of Hast Behesht
palace in Esfahan. Inside, fragments of paintings on the walls and
ceiling are still visible, and the interior is currently being restored.
In places, one can clearly see several layers of paint, the result
of a common feature of Iranian interior decoration, which was to plaster
and then paint over existing designs without removing them. A superb
wooden Safavid coffin has been placed in the corridor near the corner.
The second floor has turned into a museum since 1965. The museum contains
a variety of objects, including Neolithic pottery and bronzes from
tombs in the Alamut area, decorated tilework and Qajar handicrafts.
Gateways
of Qazvin
There
are two more Qajar constructions in Qazvin, both monumental gateways.
The first, the Darb-e Kushk or Darvazeh Kushk, in the north of town
on Hafez Avenue, was built in 1917. It is richly decorated in blue,
yellow, and white tilework. Above the central arch is the old emblem
of Iran, the lion and the sun (the crowns of the lion have now been
removed). The second gateway, known as the Gateway to Tehran or Darvazeh
Tehran, can be seen at the eastern exit of town, on the road to Tehran.
It was restored in the 1960s.
Hosseiniyeh
Aminiha
The
famous structure of Hosseiniyeh Aminiha ranks among the takaya
(mourning halls) left as pious endowments. The building consists
of large, small, and underground halls and the whole is decorated
with mirror works and other ornamentation in the Qajar style. It also
possesses large wooden sash windows with colored panes. The place
is counted as on of the reputable centers for holding mourning ceremonies
in Qazvin. Called after its founder and benefactor the late Haji Mohammad
Reza Amini, its date of the endowment is 1816 AD.
The
Castles of the Assassin
Those
who favor ambitious excursions and unusual historical episodes are
recommended to hire a car and a guide to go near the source of the
Alamut river on the southern foothills of the Alborz Mountains (requiring
one full day for the return journey). There, fortified eagles' nests
recall unbelievable but authentic adventures of the "Old Man
of the Mountains" - Hassan Sabah, The Grand Master (1040-1124)
- and of his sect of "Assassins" or "Hashashins."
The
historic fortresses are known as the Castles of the Assassins, which
were first introduced into European literature by the returning Crusaders,
and made famous this century in Dane Freya Stark's classical Valleys
of the Assassins. These were the heavily fortified lairs of the
adherents of a bizarre religious cult, based loosely on the precepts
of the Ismaili Sect. The cult was founded in the 11th century
by Hassan Sabah. This heretical and widely feared sect sent out killers
throughout the region to murder the leading political and religious
figures. Its followers, the Hashishiyun, were so called because
of their leader's alleged cunning ruse of taking them into beautiful
secret gardens (filled with equally enticing young maidens), getting
them stoned on hashish and then sending them out on their homicidal
assignments under the illusion that Hassan Sabah had the power to
transport them to paradise.
The
cult at its height extended from Syria to Khorassan. Until 1256, when
the Mongols captured its castles, the Assassins spread fear throughout
the region, although some scholars claim that their reputation was
exaggerated.
As one
might expect, the outlaw mountain hideaways were designed to be impregnable
and inaccessible, and to this day it is still extremely difficult
to visit them; a complete tour of the castles in this region would
take about a week on horseback with a local guide. Many of them are
only accessible to experienced and well-equipped mountaineers.
However,
the castle of Alamut, one of the most famous of all, is nowadays more
or less accessible by 4wd in dry weather, if one can find a guide
or driver in Qazvin willing and able to take you there. It was originally
built in 860, and captured in 1090 by the Assassins, who occupied
it until 1256.
There
are many buildings and places of interest in Qazvin, which you will
encounter when strolling through the streets of the town. Be careful
not to miss the Qazvin Museum. Qazvin is also noteworthy for its wooden
houses with peristyles painted blue, pink or mauve; and so charming
that they may seduce you to rise early in the morning and photograph
them before having breakfast.
Sefid
Rud Dam
Another
highly recommended and less energetic excursion, even if you do not
pursue it as far as the Caspian Sea, consists in a visit to the Sefid
Rud Dam. The excellent road, leading to Rasht and Bandar-e Anzali
having crossed the watershed without difficulty, enters into the colorful
gorges of an affluent of Shahrud river. Eighty kilometers from Qazvin,
you cross the river near a picturesque old bridge called Pol-e Lowshan.
Ten kilometers further on, you suddenly discover a turquoise blue
lake set amidst mountains which are snow-covered until the beginning
of April. It is the reservoir for the great dam at the confluent of
the Qizil Uzan and Shah Rud rivers. You can see the dam in the prospective
of the valley looking toward the village of Manjil. Further downstream
Rubdar announces the pleasant Guilan region with its square houses
with metal roofs scattered among the olive-and poplar trees on the
slopes of the valley.
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ADDRESSES
AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS
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ACCESS
AND DISTANCES:
148km
to Tehran. 227 km to Hamadan. 171 km to Zanjan. 449 km to Tabriz.
177 km to Rasht.
ACCIDENTS:
32000,
22637.
BANK
MELLI IRAN:
On Taleghani
Street.
BUS
TERMINAL:
(Former)
Tehran Square 27524.
CITY
DIALING CODE NUMBER:
The
dialing code for Qazvin is 0281.
DRUG
STORE (24-HOUR):
- Kulji,
Azadi (Naderi) Street 29445.
- Mahdi,
Shohada Street 29159.
EMERGENCIES:
115,
28100, 21100.
FIRE
STATION:
27777,
24444, 29000.
GOVERNOR'S
OFFICE:
Farmandari
30374-5.
MEDICAL
SERVICES:
- Bu-Ali
Hospital 32930-2.
- Dehkhoda
Hospital 30551, 35211.
- Farabi
Clinic 23939.
- Ghodss
Children's Clinic 34807-10.
- Shahid
Babai Hospital 36261.
MUNICIPALITY:
27001-6.
PASSPORT:
34123.
POLICE:
110,
23623, 29559, 23626.
POST
AND TELECOMMUNCATIONS:
116,
22010, 23334, 23612, 28000.
RAILWAY
STATION:
23481-3.
RESTAURANTS:
- Khansalar,
km 22 Qazvin-Rasht Road.
- Nemuneh,
Bu Ali Intersection. 36555.
- Share
Abbas, km 14 Qazvin-Rasht Road.
- Yass,
Taleghani Ave, Opp Alborz Hotel 22853.
TAXI
AGENT:
1. Alborz 22011
2. Homa 38205
3. Jam 35400
4. Payam 38877
TOURIST
MAP:
Available
in English and Persian.
TOURIST
OFFICE:
At the
end of Azadi Ave 33879, 38200, 31676, and 33363.
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