Niavaran

Niavaran (Persian: نياوران‎‎) is a district in the north of Tehran's foothills. Bordering leafy, uphill-winding Darband Street, it can be reached from Tajrish Square, and is close to Darabad at the far north-eastern corner of Greater Tehran.

Culture

It is home to the affluent as well as many artists, and replete with cultural riches such as Niavaran Palace Complex, Niavaran Park, and the Farhangsara (cultural centre) that includes an amphitheatre, museum, music hall, and Café Gallerie, a courtyard coffee shop with indoor exhibition space.

In recent years, the Niavaran area has become famous by groups of artists who use the traditional backdrop of the area for taking photos on their mobile phones. It has been extensively photographed by many artists using the Instagram software, which is one of the only social networking applications available in Iran.

Notable sights

The architecture is unique in that the area's graded slopes have given rise to multilevel layouts and idiosyncratic lofts. Being situated on the city foothills (1700 metres above sea level), Niavaran has a cooler climate all year round compared to the rest of Tehran, and excellent vantage points.

Niavaran Complex

The Niavaran Complex (Persian: Majmue ye Niāvarān – مجموعه نیاوران‎‎) is a historical complex situated in Shemiran, Tehran (Greater Tehran), Iran. It consists of several buildings and monuments built in the Qajar and Pahlavi eras.

History

The complex traces its origin to a garden in Niavaran region, which was used as a summer residence by Fath-Ali Shah of the Qajar Dynasty.

A pavilion was built in the garden by the order of Naser ed Din Shah of the same dynasty, which was originally referred to as Niavaran House, and was later renamed Saheb Qaranie House. The pavilion of Ahmad Shah Qajar was built in the late Qajar period.

During the reign of the Pahlavi Dynasty, a modern built mansion named Niavaran House was built for the imperial family of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. All of the peripheral buildings of the Saheb Qaranie House, with the exception of the Ahmad Shahi Pavilion, were demolished, and the buildings and structures of the present-day complex were built to the north of the Saheb Qaranie House. In the Pahlavi period, the Ahmad Shahi Pavilion served as an exhibition area for the presents from world leaders to the Iranian monarchs.

Tehran

Tehran ( pronunciation ; Persian: Tehrān – تهران‎‎) is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With a population of around 9 million in the city and 16 million in the wider metropolitan area, Tehran is the largest city and urban area of Iran, the second largest city in Western Asia, and the 3rd largest in the Middle East. It is ranked 29th in the world by the population of its metropolitan area.

In the Classical era, part of the present-day city of Tehran was occupied by a Median city, which in the Avesta occurs as Rhaga. It was destroyed by the Mongols in the early 13th century, and remains now as a city in Tehran Province, located towards the southern end of the modern-day city of Tehran.

Tehran was first chosen as the capital of Iran by Agha Mohammad Khan of the Qajar dynasty in 1796, in order to remain within close reach of Iran's territories in the Caucasus, at that time still part of Iran, and to avoid the vying factions of previous Iranian dynasties. The capital has been moved several times throughout the history, and Tehran is the 32nd national capital of Iran.

Iran

Iran (/aɪˈræn/ or ⁱ/ɪˈrɑːn/;Persian: Irān – ایران‎‎ [ʔiːˈɾɒːn]), also known as Persia (/ˈpɜːrʒə/ or /ˈpɜːrʃə/), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (جمهوری اسلامی ایران – Jomhuri ye Eslāmi ye Irān [d͡ʒomhuːˌɾije eslɒːˌmije ʔiːˈɾɒːn]), is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia, the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan; with Kazakhstan and Russia across the Caspian Sea; to the northeast by Turkmenistan; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km² (636,372 sq mi), it is the second-largest country in the Middle East and the 18th-largest in the world. With 78.4 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 17th-most-populous country. It is the only country that has both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. Iran has long been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz.

Sari Gelin

Sari Gelin (Armenian: Սարի Աղջիկ Sari Aghjik), (Azerbaijani: Sarı Gəlin/ساری گلین), (Turkish: Sarı Gelin) is the name for a number of folk songs popular among the people of Iran, the southern Caucasus and eastern Anatolia. All versions of the song use the same melody and are written in Bayati genre; but sing different lyrics. The consensus about its country of origin is contested.

"Sari Gelin" or "Sari Aghjik" is either a blonde tall girl or a girl from the mountains, depending on the respective lyric language. What the versions have in common, is a boy complaining to/about a girl he loves but cannot achieve.

Etymology

Sarı as a Turkic adjective means "yellow." Thus Sarı Gəlin can mean "golden", "blonde" or "fair-skinned" bride. In Azerbaijani it may also refer to a person’s soul.Sarı may also be derived from the Armenian word Sari. The word Gəlin in Azerbaijani and Turkish means someone who comes to the family (i.e. a bride), with its root in the Turkic word Gel (meaning "Come"). It is a common loan word from Ottoman Turkish among the non-Turkic population of the Ottoman Empire, like Armenians and Kurds. In some Armenian versions of the song, the Armenian word Aghjik (Girl) is used instead. Sarı may also be derived from the Armenian word Sarı (սարի), meaning "of the mountain," which is the meaning used in the Armenian versions of the song ("Girl/Bride from the mountains"). In Armenian, the song is known as Sari Aghjik. The Armenian word Sari (սարի), meaning "of the mountain," while the word “aghjik,” with an equal syllable number, meaning “bride” or "girl" and is often pronounced as gyalin. Together they mean "Girl/Bride from the mountains".