The Sa’dabad Palace was a royal summer home during the Palavi period. The palace complex was first inhabited by Qajar monarchs and royal family in the 19th century. The last emperor of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Palavi fled the country in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution. Soon thereafter, the Iranian monarchy was abolished and Sa’dabad Palace became a museum. However, the current presidential palace is located adjacent to the Sa’dabad compound.
The complex includes 110 hectares of land and has 18 building house museums.
One of the many entrances to the Sa’dabad Palace and museum complex.
Soldiers patrolling the compound.
Passed by a military museum inside the complex.
But first, we walked uphill to the main attraction, the Green Palace Museum.
The Green Palace is one of the most beautiful palaces of Iran. It was completed in 1928 AD. This palace became known as the Stone Palace because of the rare green stones from Khamseh Mines in Zanjan, used in its exterior views.
The Green Palace is also known as Sabz Palace. Sabz in Farsi means green.
Located nearby the Green Palace is the Omidvar Brothers’ Museum.
The museum of Omidvar Brothers had been a carriage house and a restroom for the carriage drivers during the Qajar dynasty. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, this building was repaired and reconstructed in 2002. On 26 September 2003, it was opened in the name of Iran’s first international tourists, Omidvar Brothers, named Eesa and Abdollah who were both born in Tehran in 1929 and 1932 respectively.
The Omidvar Brothers travelled to 99 countries in 5 continents for 10 years, which resulted thousands of photographs, film, articles, a large number of handicrafts. During their first seven years of travel, they went to 4 continents with 2 English one-cylinder 500CC Matchless motorcycles whose father had bought for them. In the last 3 years, they used a car gifted to them by Citroen Company of France.
However, the museum of Omidvar Brothers wasn’t part of the tour’s itinerary, thus we proceeded to visit the Green Palace.
Mohammad Reza Shah Phalavi was the Shah of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979. The Islamic Revolution forced him to leave Iran and died in exile in Egypt. As mentioned before, his summer palace became a museum.
The beautiful constructed Green Palace.
A lion statue in front of the Green Palace.
The main entrance to the Green Palace. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed inside the palace, but I still manage to capture a few pictures.
There’s a private reception hall upstairs and residence downstairs for special guests.
The Mirror Hall with wall-to-wall mirrors.
Reza Shah only lived here for a year. Apparently, Reza Shah found the bed a little too soft, he slept on the floor instead.
A roman chariot statue.
View of the Green Palace from behind.
The palace is located on a hill and in its southern side has a view of the city of Tehran and the Alborz range.
Next, we walked to the White Palace.
White Palace is the largest palace of Sa’dabad Palace and its reputation comes from its white coloured exterior. It was built between 1931 and 1937 and was where Mohammad Reza Shah and Farah Diba lived.
These two bronze boots outside the White Palace are all that remained of a giant statue of Reza Shah. The statue got chopped off after the revolution.
The main entrance hall, the dining hall, the reception hall, the billiard room and the office of Shah are all on the first floor. Yep photos are allowed in the White Palace.
Bronze statue of the Palavi family.
A beautifully carved grand piano.
This piano was made in St. Petersburg, Russia, in Nicolay the second era by Beker manufacturer which made piano only for the Royal families of Russia and Austria.
The reception hall where some official parties were held here.
The two statues of Shah and Farah are made by Russian artist, Teodorof in 1976.
A description of the Reception Hall.
On the second floor is the ceremonial dining hall, the sitting hall of the royal family, the restroom, office of Farah and music hall. There are four great paintings around upper windows at the center hall.
The paintings depicts the historic and legendary heroes from Ferdousi’s Shahnameh (the book of the kings)
The dining hall.
Office of Shah.
The television in the bedroom is one of the first colour TVs came to Iran, which was made in Grundic factory in Germany.
Sitting hall.
Shah’s day room.
The waiting hall.
The Sa’dabad Palace complex is vast. To visit all the buildings in the palace will take at least a day. Be prepared to walk a lot.
The statue of Arash the Archer in Sa’dabad Palace.
Arash the Archer is a heroic archer figure of Iranian mythology. He fires a special arrow which travelled a great distance before landing and so marking the future border between the Iranians and Aniranians.
With this, I end my tour of the Sa’dabad Palace.
There are many buildings in the compound where you can visit, however I didn’t have time to visit them all. I had a flight to catch later.
After visiting Sa’dabad Palace, we departed to the airport to fly to Shiraz by Iran Air. Since its a domestic flight, we headed to Mehrabad Airport which is located in the city centre.
Mehrabad Airport.
Since its a domestic terminal, there are no English wordings on the flight information board.
To the left is a portrait of the revered supreme leader of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini and to the right is the 7th and current president Hassan Rouhani.
I was actually a bit afraid of flying by Iran Air. Due to decades of economic sanctions, Iran Air was not able to purchase any new airplanes. Thankfully, everything went according to plan.
With this, we bid farewell to Tehran.
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