Grand Bazaar of Tehran

🕰️When was it built?

No one knows exactly when the bazaar began, but its planned form is credited to the Safavid period and the building of Tehran's city wall. In the Qajar era the bazaar grew, and old maps show its lanes and caravanserais from that time.

🏛️What was it built for?

The bazaar was a place of trade and of moving goods. The caravanserais were where loads were unpacked and where travellers and pack animals stayed. Lanes grew up for particular trades, and some of those trades still give their names to the passages.

👀What you will see

• The connected lanes of the bazaar add up to more than ten kilometres, and each section is known for a type of goods.
• Covered and open-air sections sit side by side, so the bazaar is not one uniform roofed corridor.
• Old caravanserais grew up along the main route of the bazaar to receive the caravans' loads.
• The Shah Mosque dates from the reign of Fath-Ali Shah and stands among other mosques and shrines in the area.
• Passage names such as Bazzazha (cloth sellers) and Kaffashha (shoemakers) point to the trades once carried on there.

💡Something interesting

The heart of the bazaar formed along the road between the Shah Abdol-Azim Gate and the Arg Gate. Side lanes cut across this curving route, and bit by bit a whole network of trading passages grew up.

🎒Good to know before you go