Shiraz,

Gardens at the tomb of the poet Hafez, in Shiraz.

Capital of Fars ostan (province), south central Iran, within the Zagros Mountains on an agricultural lowland at an elevation of 4,875 ft (1,486 m). Famous for its wine, it is both a historic site and an attractive modern city, with gardens, shrines, and mosques. Shiraz is the birthplace of the Persian poets Sa'di and Hafez, whose garden tombs, both resplendently renovated, lie on the northern outskirts. Despite calamitous floods (1630, 1668), pestilences, famines, and earthquakes (chiefly 1824, 1853), remarkably much of the city survived.

Shiraz was important during the Seleucid (312-175 BC), Parthian (247 BC-ad 224), and Sasanid (c. AD 224-651) periods. In the early 13th century the Mongols built the New Mosque and the fortress Bagh-e Takht. In 1387 and again in 1393, Timur (Tamerlane), the Turkic conqueror, occupied Shiraz, which, with its Congregational Mosque (894), Shah Cheragh shrine (1344-49), and Great Library (later the Madrasseh, or theological school; 1615), had become a Muslim centre rivalling Baghdad. In 1724 the city was sacked by Afghan invaders. Shiraz became capital of the Zand dynasty (1750-94), whose founder, the vakil (regent) Karim Khan Zand, adorned the old city with many fine buildings, including his mausoleum (an octagonal tiled kiosk, now a museum); the Ark, or citadel (now a prison); and the Vakil Bazaar and Mosque. Buildings in the new city include the Persian Church of St. Simon the Zealot and the university (1945).

The city, a trading and road centre for the central Zagros Mountains, is linked to Bushire, its port on the Persian Gulf. It has cement, sugar, and fertilizer factories and textile mills, and traditional inlay work flourishes. Pop. (1976) 416,408.
- SOURCE: Encyclopaedia Britannica

MAJOR SIGHTS IN & AROUND SHIRAZ

Tomb of the poet Hafez
Tomb of the poet Saadi
Baghe Eram classical gardens & palace
Baghe Shah Chragh shrine
Vakil Mosque
Church of St. Simon the Zealot
Baghe Afif-Abad classical gardens.

The ancient ruins of Persepolis and Pasargadae, the capitals of the Achamaenian Empire, are respectively 57 km. and 130 km. from Shiraz.
Naghsheh Rostam, which may house the tombs of Darius, Artaxerxes, Xerxes I, and Darius II (from left to right) as well as a number of Sasanid carvings, is also within driving distance of Shiraz, between Persepolis and Pasargadae.

SELECTED LINKS ON SHIRAZ

Pictures of Shiraz from the Iranian Cultural Information Center website.
Shiraz from the Iran Bazaar website.
Persepolis
Naghshe Rostam
Hafez
Sa'adi
Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and its mirror site in Iran