SHIRAZ/TITLE> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META http-equiv="Keywords" content="SHIRAZ" > <META name="Description" content="Compare prices & choose the best before visiting SHIRAZ iran" > <style type=text/css>BODY { SCROLLBAR-ARROW-COLOR: #97AABA; SCROLLBAR-FACE-COLOR: #F2F5F7; SCROLLBAR-HIGHLIGHT-COLOR: #B2C3D0; SCROLLBAR-SHADOW-COLOR: #B2C3D0; SCROLLBAR-3DLIGHT-COLOR: #ffffff; SCROLLBAR-TRACK-COLOR: #FFFFFF; SCROLLBAR-DARKSHADOW-COLOR: #FFFFFF } .bold { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; color: #669999; font-weight: bold} .bodyplain { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; color: #000000; font-weight: normal} .boldwhite { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; color: #FFFFFF; font-weight: bold ; text-decoration: none} .boldwhiteCopy { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; color: 4A627A; font-weight: bold ; text-decoration: none} .credit { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; color: #CCCCCC; font-weight: bold ; text-decoration: none } .bodyplainred { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; color: #FF6633; font-weight: normal ; text-decoration: none} .bodyplaingrey { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; color: #999999; font-weight: normal } .d-s { FONT-SIZE: 70%; FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica,sans-serif } .d-r { FONT-SIZE: 80%; FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica,sans-serif } </style> <style fprolloverstyle>A:hover {font-weight: bold} </style> </HEAD> <BODY leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" bgcolor="ffffff" background="../Iran%20Imagess/bkg.gif"> <table width="80%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr valign="top"> <td height="70"> <table width="500" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="../../images/bkgrntop.jpg" height="70"> <tr valign="top"> <td valign="middle" align="left"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="90%"> <p style="margin-left: 5"> <font color="green" size="3"><b> <font face="Verdana" color="#FFFFFF" size="6">SHIRAZ</font></b></font></td> <td width="10%"> <img border="0" src="../../images/world.gif" width="40" height="40">.</td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td height="18"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="760" background="../../images/bkgrnnav.jpg" height="18" id="table1"> <tr> <td> <p class="boldwhite" align="right"> <a class="boldwhite" href="../../index.html"><font color="#FFFFFF">Visa</font></a> <font size="1">•</font> <a class="boldwhite" href="../travel-agencies/iranian_travel_agencies.html"><font color="#FFFFFF">Travel Agents</font></a> <font size="1">•</font> <a class="boldwhite" href="../../tours.html"> <font color="#FFFFFF">Tours</font></a> <font size="1">•</font> <a class="boldwhite" href="../../hotel.html"><font color="#FFFFFF">Hotels</font></a> <font size="1">•</font> <a class="boldwhite" href="../../flights.html"> <font color="#FFFFFF">Flights</font></a> <font size="1">•</font> <a class="boldwhite" href="../about-iran/aboutiran.html"> <font color="#FFFFFF">About Iran</font></a><font size="1">•</font> <a class="boldwhite" href="../../general.html"> <font color="#FFFFFF">General</font></a><font size="1"> •</font><a class="boldwhite" href="../../e1.html"><font color="#FFFFFF">Iran Embassies</font></a> <font size="1">•</font> <a class="boldwhite" href="../../contactus.html"><font color="#FFFFFF">Contact us</font></a><font color="#FFFFFF"><img src="../../images/clear.gif" width="20" height="8" class="boldwhiteCopy"></font></p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td class="bodyplain" valign="baseline"> <br> <p style="margin-left: 2cm; margin-right: 2cm" align="center">   <table border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="203"> <font color="#3366CC"> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script></font></td> <td> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <font color="green" size="3"><table cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0" width="600" border="0" id="table2"> <tr> <td> <table cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0" width="600" border="0" id="table3"> <tr> <td width="723"> <p align="justify"><b> <font face="Verdana" color="#996633" size="6">SHIRAZ</font></b> </p> <p align="justify"><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><br> </font></b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><img height="187" hspace="10" src="Persepolis03.jpg" width="250" align="right" vspace="10" border="2">Welcome to Shiraz, the present-day capital of Fars Province, the heartland of Iran, which gave its name to the Persian language: Farsi. Welcome to Shiraz, the city of historic monuments, poets and philosophers, warriors and kings, orchards, orangeries, roses, adonises and fragrant blossoms, in southern Iran. Nearly 8-km long uninterrupted rose gardens are what you will see on both sides of a highway to the same length connecting the Shiraz Airport to outskirts of the town. Shiraz is located in an altitude of 1,600 m, and 895 km to the south of Tehran, being accessible both by road and an airport for domestic and local flights.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> </font></td> </tr> </table> <p align="justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <img height="164" hspace="10" src="P043_2.jpg" width="250" align="left" vspace="10" border="2">Spring and autumn, particularly from early February till May and then from October till late November, are the most delightful and exhilarating seasons accompanied by the warmth and passion of its people, parks with magnificent trees, and long wide shady avenues leading from one end of the town to the other end, apart from being an incitement to leisurely wanderings during siesta time have always lured famous scholars and travellers to visit Shiraz. So much so that:<br> <i>"The visitor forgets his homeland When in Mav he comes to .Shiraz"</i> (<u>Sa'di)</u><br> Shiraz with a population of 973,161 inhabitants, lies in a pleasant green valley surrounded by high mountains, in the vicinity of lake Maharlou. Its climate is extremely agreeable and generally temperate because of the city's altitude (1,600 m). During Now Ruz (the Iranian New Year beginning on 2lstMarch)the city becomes a field of flowers and greenery, heady with scent of orange- blossom.The heat on very hot summer days does not exceed 40 degrees centigrade nor does the cold on winter days drop below minus 3 degrees centigrade.<br> On coming from "suddenly we turned a corner", E G Browne relates in his fascinating Year Among the Persians, "and in that moment -a moment of which the recollection will never fade from my mind -there burst upon my delighted gaze a view the like of which (in its way) I never saw. We were now at that point known to all students of Hafez, called Tang-e Allahu Akbar, because whoever first beholds Shiraz here is constrained by the exceeding beauty of the sight to cry in admiration Allahu Akbar -God is most great! And the inimitable Hafez cried: Delightful is Shiraz and its incomparable situation -Oh God! Preserve it from decay!" This might have held true for the Shiraz of at least 60 years ago, but today with the town growing westwards, a much better view of the town can be obtained anywhere after passing through the Koran Gate.<br> <img height="187" hspace="10" src="Persepolis04.jpg" width="250" align="right" vspace="10" border="2">But, like all Iranian cities south of the Caspian belt, its luxuriance is man-made. There exist first-class commercial lifelines to Esfahan, Tehran, Kerman, Bandar Abbas and Ahwaz. Shiraz is an oasis in both the literal and the metaphorical senses of the word; its numerous gardens are miraculous havens after tiring drive from any direction.<br> The home of Sa'di and Hafez has seen many an ancient day, the clay tablets at Persepolis referring to wages paid to workers from Shi-Razi-Ish, or what is known today as Shiraz. The prosperity and magnificence of Shiraz are, however, products of the Islamic era.<br> The 9th century AD saw developments in Shiraz, the pace accelerated during the 10th century, when the town was promoted to the status of capital of Persia. During the Atabakan-e Pars period (12- 13th centuries) and continuing through to the 14th century, Shiraz was one of the largest and most populous Islamic cities.<br> </font></p> <p align="justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <img height="373" hspace="10" src="Shiraz_JameMosque.jpg" width="250" align="right" vspace="10" border="2">During the reign of Shah Abbas the Great (turn of the 17th century) and the emirate of his celebrated general, in Pars, Imam Gholi Khan, Shiraz once again enjoyed peace and prosperity,<br> Karim Khan Zand (18th century), the righteous king, promoted Shiraz once more to become the capital of the empire, contributing greatly to its prosperity by building mosques, bazaars, roads, citadels and other structures in the town.<br> With the termination of the Zand era, Shiraz too, began to decline. Today, however, the famous Shiraz University and Hospital, as well as the various electronic, chemical, spinning, weaving and cement factories in addition to the flourishing agriculture of the environs of Shiraz, contribute towards making the city a place of considerable standing and prosperity.<br> The following is a brief description of the places of interest in Shiraz, with the historic sites such as the Persepolis, Naqsh-e Rostam, and Naqsh-e Rajab being separately treated under the heading.</font> </p> <b> <p align="left"><font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a name="The Koran Gate">The Koran Gate</a><br> </font></b><font face="Verdana" size="2">The Koran Gate was originally built as an ornamental entrance to the north of the town by the Buvayhids about 1,000 years ago. Karim Khan Zand placed a volume of the holy Koran in the small room built on top of the gate, for the blessing. By the sanction of the same Koran, the gate guarantees safe return to all Shirazis, who pass under it. The original gate was demolished nearly in the <i>'50s </i>and the present one was erected on its site by a local merchant.</font></p> <b> <p align="left"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><br> POETICAL CAPITAL OF PERSIA<br> </font></b><font face="Verdana" size="2">Many scholars have justifiably used the term "poetical capital" for the town which gave Iran two of the greatest poets of the world, Sa'di and Hafez. Sa'di (c 1209-91) was born into a learned and accomplished family, and died in Shiraz. Known as the patron poet of travelers, he was first educated in Baghdad and then traveled in the Middle East. North Africa and India before settling in Shiraz where, drawing on his wide experience, he set down in verse and prose his eminently sensible views on life and human nature. He was taken prisoner by the Crusaders, enslaved and set to manual digging work in Tripoli. While Hafez exemplifes the poet who finds a world in a single city, Sa'di made a single city the world, wandering from India to Turkey, Lebanon; Ethiopia, and Arabia over a period of thirty years as a dervish that is to say, relying on haphazard hospitality and undergoing extremes of hunger, thirst and fatigue in a kind of physical allegory of the spiritual quest.<br> Sa'di's best known works are the <i>Gulistan </i>(The Rose Garden) and the <i>Bustan </i>(The Orchard). Like Hafez, Sa'di is always being quoted and is popularly referred to by Iranians as the Sheikh of Shiraz.</font> </p> <p align="left"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><b> <a href="SHIRAZ-musem.html">Shiraz Museums</a><br> <a href="SHIRAZ-sadi.html">Shiraz Shrines</a><br> <a href="SHIRAZ-bazar.html">Shiraz Bazaar</a><br> <a href="SHIRAZ-hafez.html">Shiraz Hafezieh</a></b><br> </font><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="green"><b> <a href="Shiraz %20Gardens.html">Shiraz Gardens</a></b></font></p> <b><u> <p align="left"><font face="Verdana" size="2">ADDRESSES AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS</font></p> </u><font size="2"> <p align="left"><font face="Verdana">ACCESS AND DISTANC ES:<br> </font></font></b><font face="Verdana" size="2">919 km to Tehran. 484 km to Esfahan. 555 km to Kerman. 556 km to Ahwaz. 600 km to Bandar-e Abbas.<br> ACCIDENTS: Traffic Department 22285.<br> AIR AGENT:<br> There are three ticket offices in town, but the only one dealing with refunds and international flights is the main one on the south side of Zand Blvd about 150 meters northwest of Enghelab Square 30041-9.<br> <b>AIRPORT:<br> </b>Tickets for the new airport bus service cost 200 Rials at the office in arrivals lounge; there are several routes into town. A taxi between the airport (22061-3) and town costs 5000 Rials for a solo passenger.<br> <br> <b>BANKS AND EXCHANGE OFFICES:<br> </b> 1. BankMellat41.252.<br> 2. Bank Melli Iran, on the north side of Karim Khan Zand Blvd, just east of the Arg 48042-6<br> 3 Bank Saderat Iran 335028.<br> 4. Bank Sepah 42045.<br> 5. Aali Exchange Office, Shahr-e Shab Shopping Center, land Crossroads 54622.<br> 6. Ansari Exchange Office, Next to Sassan Hotel 339466.<br> 7. Chah Tussi Exchange Office, land Crossroads 22793. .<br> 8. Nakhili Exchange Office, land Crossroads, Next to Municipality 22854,42065.<br> 9. Shiraz Exchange Office, Shahr-e Shab Shopping Center, land Crossroads 66730.<br> <b><br> BUS TERMINAL:<br> </b>Buses leave for most major towns from the main bus terminal known as the Terminal-e Hafez. in Hafez Street.</font> </p> <b> <p align="left"><font face="Verdana" size="2">CITY DIALING CODE NUMBER:<br> </font></b><font face="Verdana" size="2">The dialing code for Shiraz is 071.<br> <b><br> DRUG STORE (24-HOUR):<br> </b>1. Shiraz 35272.<br> 2. Babak 50492.<br> <b><br> EMERGENCIES: </b>115.310272-9.39584. <b>FIRE STATION: </b>112.24444.<br> <b><br> GOVERNOR'S OFFICE:<br> </b>Ostandari 38025-8, on the north side of Enghelab Square. Farmandari 28632, on the east side of Ayatollah sadr Blvd.<br> <b><br> MEDICAL SERVICES:<br> </b>Shiraz is famous for the standard of its medical training, so this is probably the best place to fall ill outside Tehran. The best known medical centers are:<br> 1. Dr Rastegar Hospital, Fatemi Street 334574.<br> 2. Hafez Hospital, 16th Azar Square 671531- 6<br> 3. Khalili Hospital, Jomhuri Square 667363- 6.<br> 4. Moshir Hospital, Imam Khomeini Ave 331635.<br> 5. Namazi Hospital, Jomhuri Square 663041.<br> 6. Sa'di Hospital, Karim Khan land Blvd 51090-8.<br> 7. Shiraz Hospital, land Ave 41161-4.<br> <b><br> MUNICIPALITY:<br> </b>On the north side of Shohada Square 23624.<br> <b><br> POLICE:<br> </b>A few meters to the northeast of Shohada Square, opposite the west corner of the Arg (now belonging to the police headquarters and inaccessible to visitors) Tel. 22075-6.<br> <b><br> POST AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS: </b>The main post and telegraph office is in an alley behind the Bank Melli Iran central branch. The easiest way to make an international call is at the Homa Hotel, booked an hour or two in advance.<br> <b><br> RESTAURANTS:<br> </b>Most of the cheaper <i>chelo kababis </i>and <i>kababis </i>are around Shohada Square, especially behind the Arg. Most of the best establishments are some way out of the center. North of the river there are several good but rather expensive restaurants around the Homa Hotel and the Gas Square. If you are entering or leaving Shiraz, the restaurants at the bus terminal and the airport are better than most of their kind. <br> There are many good restaurants all along the Karim Khan-e Zand Blvd (mainly at its intersection with other streets): Habib Eating Salon (not marked in English) at the inter section with Rudaki Street and next to tile Hafez Cinema; Golestan Restaurant at the inter section With Anvari Street. If you want to splash out and still get good value for money, the ground-floor restaurant at the Homa Hotel is without doubt one of the best places around which serves some of the best Continental food in Iran, as well as traditional Iranian dishes such as excellent bone less fish kabab or quail kabab.<br> Iran may not be a country that you would immediately associate with <i> samosas </i>and <i>pakoras, </i>but they are very popular in the southern provinces, and both can be found at the Jalali Samosa Salon off Gas Square in the north of Shiraz.<br> Don't forget to try the local faludeh (or <i>paludeh), </i>a difficult-to-describe sweet chilled dish, half drink, half pudding, made of rose water and vermicelli, working out as something like a crosbetween a <i>sorbet </i>and a rice pudding and very refreshing. It can be sampled in several places behind the Arg.<br> <b><br> TAXI:<br> </b>You call get a shared taxi to the north of the river for 100 to 200 Rials from Yali Asr, Shohada, and Enghelab squares; or from one end of Zand Blvd to the other for around 100 Rials. Most of the sights south of the river can easily be visited on foot.<br> <b><br> TOURIST MAP:<br> </b>Available in English and Persian<br> <b><br> TOURIST OFFICE:<br> </b>Seyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi Street, be fore the second turning to the left 38032-4, 37044, 34080. Although the building is only marked in Persian, the staff inside speak English.<br> <b><br> VISA AFFAIRS:<br> </b>The visa office is on the first floor of the police headquarters to the northeast of Shohada Square.</font></td> </tr> </table> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2"> </font></font></td> <td width="50%" valign="top"> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="760" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <tr> <td> <div align="right"> <table width="342" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="../../images/bkgrnbottom.jpg" height="50" align="right"> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="97AABA"> <td height="18"> <div align="center" class="bodyplain">Copyright © 2002-2006 ISTA, INC.</div> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.2> if (document.all) document.body.onmousedown=new Function("if (event.button==2||event.button==3)alert('Irantour.org (ISTA) , Inc. All rights reserved.')") </SCRIPT></BODY> </HTML>