Tehran has more museums than most visitors expect, and many of them sit inside the palaces, mansions and gardens of the Qajar and Pahlavi eras. Some are world-class, like the Golestan Palace and the National Museum of Iran. Others are small, odd and rewarding, like a museum devoted to lichens or a restored 1920s petrol station. This guide to museums in Tehran gathers every museum and palace we have written about, grouped so you can plan a day by area or by interest. Each link goes to our full visitor guide.
A few practical points apply almost everywhere. Most museums close on public holidays and some close one day a week, usually Monday or Saturday, so check before you set out. Foreign visitors usually pay a higher ticket price than Iranians, and payment is mostly by Iranian bank card, so carry cash in rials or ask a local friend to pay and settle up afterwards. Photography is allowed in most galleries without flash, though some treasuries forbid cameras altogether.
The essentials. If you only have a day or two, start downtown. The Golestan Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the jewel of Qajar Tehran, with its mirror halls and tiled courtyards. A short walk away, the National Museum of Iran covers everything from prehistoric pottery to Achaemenid reliefs, and its neighbour, the Islamic Era Museum, picks up the story from the seventh century. The National Jewelry Museum, in the vaults of the Central Bank, holds the crown jewels, including the Darya-ye Noor diamond, but keeps short opening hours, so check before you go. In the north, the White Palace at Sa’dabad and the wider Sa’dabad complex make a good half-day. Our guide to epigraphy and calligraphy sites and our pick of the top mansions are useful for planning a longer route.
Royal palaces. Sa’dabad contains several former royal residences that are now museums. Beyond the White Palace, the Green Palace is the most ornate, with a famous mirror hall. The Royal Clothes Museum, the Royal Tableware Museum and the Royal Weapons Museum show how the court dressed, dined and fought. Further east, the Mozaffari Palace in Darabad is a smaller Qajar summer retreat, and the Niavaran Cultural Centre sits beside the Niavaran Palace complex, the last home of the Pahlavis. In the centre, the Masoudieh Palace near Baharestan Square is a rare survivor of a Qajar prince’s compound, and the Abyaz Palace inside the Golestan complex houses the anthropology collection.
Historic houses and mansions. Tehran’s merchants and courtiers left behind some beautiful homes. The Mostofi-ol Mamalek Mansion, the Amir Khosro Afshar House and the Eyno-Doleh Mansion are good examples of Qajar domestic architecture. The Shaghaghi House, also known as the Kooshk, is an unusual oval mansion near Ferdowsi Square. The Moghadam House Museum on Imam Khomeini Street is one of the most atmospheric, full of tiles and antiques collected by its owners. The Minaee Heritage House and the Simin and Jalal House Museum, home of the writers Simin Daneshvar and Jalal Al-e Ahmad, are quieter and more personal. The Cossack House by the National Garden and the Shahrbani Palace are worth a look if you are walking the old government quarter, as is the Navab Bath House.
Art and design. The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art on the edge of Laleh Park holds one of the most important collections of modern Western art outside Europe and America, alongside Iranian modernists; our report on its Giacometti sculptures explains part of the story. For older Persian painting, calligraphy and manuscripts, visit the Reza Abbasi Museum, the Mir Emad Calligraphy Museum and the Malek National Library and Museum. The National Art Museum, the Tehran Museum of Fine Arts, the Graphic Design Museum and the Under-Glass Painting Museum cover more specialist ground. The Carpet Museum of Iran, next to the contemporary art museum, is essential if you plan to buy a rug. Glass and ceramics fans should head to the Abgineh Museum, and our ceramic museums guide adds the smaller Farzaneh collection. The Ali Akbar Sanati Museum shows the work of one of Iran’s best-known sculptors, and the Iranian Artists Forum is a lively venue for current exhibitions. For outdoor sculpture, read about the Golden Palm in Mellat Park.
Culture and community. The Iran Music Museum displays traditional instruments and often has someone on hand to play them. The Cinema Museum of Iran occupies a Qajar garden mansion in north Tehran and is a pleasant place for coffee as well as film history. The Artak Manookian Armenian Museum tells the story of Tehran’s Armenian community, and the Adorian Fire Temple is the city’s working Zoroastrian temple. The Omidvar Brothers’ Museum at Sa’dabad records two Iranian brothers’ travels around the world in the 1950s, and the International Dolls Museum is a hit with children.
Science, nature and the unusual. The National Science and Technology Museum, the Geoscience Museum, the National Museum of Medical Sciences and the Zafaraniyeh Observatory suit curious minds. Natural history lovers can choose between the Haft Chenar Nature and Wildlife Museum and the Darabad Nature and Wildlife Museum. Then there are the specialists: the Golsang Lichens Museum, the Time Museum, the Post and Communications Museum, the Darvazeh Dowlat Gas Station Museum, the National Car Museum with its royal Rolls-Royces, and the National Sports Museum. The Azadi Tower Museum takes you inside the city’s best-known monument.
Gardens with museums. The Qasr Garden Museum is a former royal palace that later became a prison and is now a museum and park. The Iranian Art Museum Garden displays replicas of famous monuments in a pleasant park setting.
Military and modern history. Several museums present the state’s view of recent history, and they are best visited with that in mind. The Holy Defense Museum covers the Iran–Iraq war of the 1980s with large immersive displays. The Ebrat Museum occupies a former prison, the Martyrs Museum commemorates those killed in the revolution and the war, and the Iran Military Museum at Sa’dabad has older weapons and vehicles.
Planning where to stay near the museums? The downtown hotels in our Tehran hotels guide are within walking distance of the Golestan Palace and the National Museum, and our Old Tehran walking guide links many of them in a single route. If you would like to read museum labels in the original, the Persia Learning course, whose first lesson is free, starts with the alphabet.
