Azadi Tower - Museum

Museum

e tower is directly underneath the main vault and leads into the Azadi Museum on the basement floor. The black walls, the pure, sober lines, and the proportions of the whole building create an intentionally austere atmosphere. Heavy doors open onto a kind of crypt where lighting is subdued. The shock is immediate. The lighting there seems to issue from the showcases placed here and there, each containing a unique object. Gold and enamel pieces, painted pottery, marble, the warm shades of the miniatures and of the varnished paintings glitter like stars among the black marble walls and in the semi-darkness of the concrete mesh which forms the ceiling of this cave of marvels. There are about fifty pieces selected from among the finest and most precious in Iran. They are in excellent condition and each represents a particular period in the country's history.

The place of honour is occupied by a copy of the Cyrus Cylinder (the original is in the British Museum). A translation of the cuneiform inscription on the cylinder is inscribed in golden letters on the wall of one of the galleries leading to the museum's audio-visual department; opposite, a similar plaque lists the Twelve Points of the White Revolution. Next to the Cyrus Cylinder, a magnificent gold plaque commemorates the presentation of the museum to the Shah by the Mayor of Tehran.

Among the earliest testimonies of Iran's history on display here are square flagstones, gold sheeting, and terra cotta tablets from Susa, covered with cuneiform characters of astonishingly rigorous geometry. Potteries, ceramics, varnished porcelains (such as the beautiful seventh-century blue and gold dish from Gorgan), an illuminated Koran, and a few exceptional miniatures highlight milestones in the country's annals up to the nineteenth century, which is itself represented by two magnificent painted panels from Empress Farah Pahlavi's collection.