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North Tehran

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North Tehran

کلانشهر تهران · Tehran Metropolis
Official seal of Tehran


Country  Iran
Province Tehran
County Tehran
Bakhsh Central
 • Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf
 • City Council Chairman: Ahmad Masjed-Jamei
 • Urban 730 km2 (280 sq mi)
 • Metro 1,274 km2 (492 sq mi)
Elevation 1,200 to 1,980 m (3,900 to 6,470 ft)
Population (2012)
 • Density 10,327.6/km2 (26,748.3/sq mi)
 • Urban 8,244,535
 • Metro 13,828,365[1]
 • Population Rank in Iran 1st
  Population Data from 2006 Census and Tehran Municipality.[2][3] Metro area figure refers to Tehran Province.
Time zone IRST (UTC+03:30)
Area code(s) 021

Tehran (Western Asia.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, Tehran has been the subject of mass migration of people from all around Iran.[4] The city is home to many historic mosques, churches, synagogues and Zoroastrian fire temples. However, modern structures, notably Azadi (Freedom) Tower and the Milad Tower, have come to symbolise the city. Tehran is ranked 29th in the world by the population of its metropolitan area.[5] Throughout Iran's history, the capital has been moved many times, and Tehran is the 32nd national capital of Iran although it has been Iran's capital for about 220 years. Although a variety of unofficial languages are spoken, notably Azeri Turkish, roughly 98% of the population understand or speak Persian.[6] The majority of people in Tehran identify themselves as Persians.[7][8] In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Tehran was an unimportant village and part of the area of present-day Tehran was occupied by Ray (which in the Avesta occurs in the form[9] of Ragha), now a part of the city of Tehran, which took over its role after the destruction of Ray by the Mongols in the early 13th century.


An important historical city in the area of modern-day Tehran, now absorbed by it, is known as Ray, which is etymologically connected to the Old Persian and Avestan Ragha.[10] The city was a major area of the Iranian speaking Medes and Achaemenids.


The Damavand mountain located near the city also appears in the Shahnameh as the place where Freydun bounds the dragon-fiend Zahhak. Damavand is important in Persian mythological and legendary events.[12] Kayūmarṯ, the Zoroastrian prototype of human beings and the first king in the Shahnameh, was said to have resided in Damāvand.[12] In these legends, the foundation of the city of Damavand was attributed to him.[12] Arash, the archer who sacrificed his body by giving all his strength to the arrow that demarcated Iran and Turan, shot his arrow from Mount Damāvand.[12] This Persian legend was celebrated every year in the Tiregan festival. A popular feast is reported to have been held in the city of Damavand on 7 Šawwāl 1230, or in Gregorian calendar, 31 August 1815. During the alleged feast the people celebrated the anniversary of Zahhak's death.[12] In the Zoroastrian legends, the tyrant Zahhak is to finally be killed by the Iranian hero Garšāsp before the final days.[12]

In some Middle Persian texts, Ray (Ragha) is given as the birthplace of Zoroaster[13] although modern historians generally place the birth of Zoraster in Khorasan. In one Persian tradition, the legendary king Manūčehr was born in Damavand.[12]

During the Sassanid era, Yazdegerd III in 641 issued from Ray his last appeal to the nation before fleeing to Khorasan.[11] The sanctuary of Bibi Shahr-Banu situated in modern Tehran spur and accessible only to women is associated with the memory of the daughter of Yazdegerd who, according to tradition, became the wife of al-Husayn b. Ali, the third Shi'ite Imam.[11] Ray was the fief of the Parthian Mihran family and Siyavakhsh the son of Mihran the son of Bahram Chobin resisted the Arab invasion.[11] Because of this resistance, when the Arabs captured Ray, they ordered the town to be destroyed and ordered Farrukhan b. Zaynabi b. Kula to rebuild the town.[11]

In the 10th century, Ray is described in detail in the work of Islamic geographers.[11] Despite the interest of Baghdad displayed in Ray, the number of Arabs there was insignificant, and the population consisted of Persians of all classes.[11][14] The Ghuzz Turks laid Ray to waste in 1035 and in 1042, but the city recovered during the Saljuqid and Khwarazmian era.[11] The Mongols laid Ray to complete waste and according to Islamic historians of the era, virtually all of its inhabitants were massacared.[11] The city is mentioned in later Safavid chronicles[11] as an unimportant city.

The origin of the name Tehran is unknown.[15] Tehran was well known as a village in the 9th century, but was less well-known than the city of Rhages (Ray) which was flourishing nearby in the early era. Najm al-Din Razi known as Dayya gives the population of Ray as 500,000 before the Mongol invasion. In the 13th century, following the destruction of Ray by Mongols, many of its inhabitants escaped to Tehran. In some sources of the early era, the city is mentioned as "Rhages's Tehran". The city is later mentioned in Hamdollah Mostowfi's Nuz'hat al-Qulub (written in 1340) as a famous village.









Tehran features a semi-arid, continental climate (Köppen climate classification: BSk). The northern parts can reach a mediterranean climate (Csa) bordering humid continental (Dsa). Tehran's climate is largely defined by its geographic location, with the towering Alborz Mountains to its north and the central desert to the south. It can be generally described as mild in the spring and autumn, hot and dry in the summer, and cold in the winter. Because the city is large with significant differences in elevation among various districts, the weather is often cooler in the hilly north than in the flat southern part of Tehran. For instance, the 17.3 km (10.7 mi) Vali E Asr street runs from the Tehran's railway station than, 1,117 m (3,665 ft) elevation above see level, in the south of the city to the Tajrish square, 1,612 m (5,289 ft) elevation above sea level, in the north. However, the elevation can even rise up to 1,900 m (6,200 ft) at the end of the Velenjak street in the north of Tehran.






On January 21, 2012, the local weather experienced a turbulence unanticipated by weather forecasts. That day, the temperate fell to −17 °C (1 °F) and remained for 3 days at −10 °C (14 °F).[20]

Climate data for Tehran-MEHRABAD AIRPORT, Altitude: 1190.8 M - from 1988-2005
Record high °C (°F) 19.6
Average high °C (°F) 7.9
Average low °C (°F) −0.4
Record low °C (°F) −15.0
Precipitation mm (inches) 34.6
Avg. rainy days 9.1 8.4 10.9 10.7 8.8 3.0 2.1 1.3 1.0 5.2 7.1 8.8 76.4
Avg. snowy days 5.1 2.9 1.1 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.4 2.7 12.3
 % humidity 64 56 48 41 33 25 26 26 27 36 49 62 41.1
Mean monthly sunshine hours 173.6 182.8 205.5 222.8 289.5 345.1 349.5 340.3 304.0 256.1 194.9 166.1 3,030.2
Source: [21]
Record high °C (°F) 16.4
Average high °C (°F) 6.1
Average low °C (°F) −1.5
Record low °C (°F) −11.4
Precipitation mm (inches) 63.1
 % humidity 67 59 53 44 39 30 31 31 33 44 57 66 46.2
Source: [21]


The city of Tehran (not to be confused with the larger, Metropolitan Tehran) had a population of approximately 7.8 million in 2006.[22] With its cosmopolitan atmosphere, Tehran is home to diverse ethnic and linguistic groups from all over the country. The native language of the city is the Tehrani accent of Persian and the majority of people in Tehran identify themselves as Persian.[8][23] However, historically, the original native dialect of the Tehran–Ray region is not Persian, which is linguistically Southwest Iranian and originates in Fars in the south of the country, but a (now extinct) Northwest Iranian dialect belonging to the Central Iran group.[24] Azerbaijanis about 25%[25] to 1/3,[26][27] and other ethnic Minority groups included (Kurds, Arabs, Baluch, Armenians, Bakhtiari, Assyrians, Talysh), and more. According to a 2010 census conducted by the Sociology Department of Tehran University in many districts of Tehran across various socio-economic classes in proportion to population sizes of each district and socio-economic class, 63% of people in Tehran were born in Tehran, 98% know Persian, 75% identify themselves as ethnic Persian, and 13% have some degree of proficiency in a European language.[28]




The majority of Tehranis are followers of Twelver Shia Islam, which is also the state religion. Religious minorities include followers of various sects of Sunni Islam, Mystic Islam, Yârsânism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity (including the adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East, Armenian Apostolic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Iranian Protestant churches like Jama'at-e Rabbani (Assemblies of God), Armenian Evangelical Church, Armenian Brotherhood Church, Russian Orthodox Church, and the Presbyterian Church) and some from the Bahá'í Faith. Tehran also has small number of third generation Iranian Sikh community that has a gurudwara visited by Indian Prime Minister in 2012.[29]

Capital relocation

Plan to move the capital has been discussed many times in prior years. In 2010, the government of Iran announced that "for security and administrative reasons" the plan to move the capital from Tehran has been finalized.[30] The Majlis named Shahroud, Esfahan and Semnan as three of main candidates to replace Tehran as the capital. There are plans to relocate 163 state firms to the provinces and several universities from Tehran to avoid damages from a potential earthquake. President Ahmadinejad suggested that 5 million residents should migrate out of Tehran.[30][31] As a starting point, Iranian authorities are relocating all defense-related industries out of the capital.[32]

Location and subdivisions

Tehran county borders Shemiranat county to the north, Damavand county to the east, Eslamshahr, Pakdasht, and Ray counties to the south, and Karaj and Shahriar counties to the west.

Neighbourhoods and districts of Tehran

The city of Tehran is divided into 22 municipal districts, each with its own administrative centres.

Within these 22 districts, Tehran contains the following major neighbourhoods:

Abbas Abad, Afsariyeh, Amaniyeh, Amir Abad, Aryashahr, Bagh Feiz, Baharestan, Darakeh, Darband, Dardasht, Dar Abad, Darrous, Dehkadeh Olampik, Ekhtiyariyeh, Ekbatan, Elahiyeh, Evin, Farmanieh, Fereshteh, Gheitariye, Gholhak, Gisha, Gomrok, Hasan Abad, Jamaran, Jannat Abad, Javadiyeh, Jomhuri, Jordan, Lavizan, Mehran, Narmak, Navab, Nazi Abad, Niavaran, Park-e Shahr, Pasdaran, Piroozi, Punak, Ray, Sa'adat Abad, Sadeghiyeh, Seyed Khandan, Sohrevardi, Shahrara, Shahr-e ziba, Shahrak-e Gharb, Shemiran, Tajrish, Tehranno, Tehranpars, Tehransar, Vanak, Velenjak, Yaft Abad, Yusef Abad, Zafaraniyeh, etc.

Older neighborhoods


North Tehran

North Tehran is a wealthy region in Tehran. North Tehran consists of various smaller districts from north east to north west; such as Zaferanieh district, Jordan, Elahieh/Elahyeh, Kamranieh, Ajoudanieh, Farmanieh, Darrous, Gheitarieh, etc.[33][34] North Tehran is known as an area of liberal Iranians who wear more moderate clothing and have more secular ideas.[33][34]



Food and restaurants



Tehran is the economic centre of Iran.[35] About 30% of Iran's public-sector workforce and 45% of large industrial firms are located in Tehran and almost half of these workers work for the government.[36] Most of the remainder of workers are factory workers, shopkeepers, laborers, and transport workers. Few foreign companies operate in Tehran because of the Iranian government's relations to the west. But before the Islamic revolution many foreign companies were active in this region. Today many modern industries of this city include the manufacturing of automobiles, electronics and electrical equipment, weaponry, textiles, sugar, cement, and chemical products. It is also a leading center for the sale of carpets and furniture. There is an oil refinery near Ray, south of the city. Tehran has four airports : Mehrabad International Airport, Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport, Ghal#ad Morghi airfield (Velayat Park) and Doshan Tappeh Air Base.




According to the head of Tehran Municipality's Environment and Sustainable Development Office, Tehran has a capacity for 700,000 cars but currently more than 3 million cars are on the roads in the capital.The automation industry has recently developed but international sanctions influence the production processes periodically.[38]




Tehran claims to have one of the cleanest and most convenient metro systems, in terms of accessibility to different parts of the city, in the region. The feasibility study and conceptual planning of the construction were started in 1970s. In 2001, the first two of the eight projected metro lines were opened. Tehran Metro has four operative lines and is 130 km (81 mi) long with another two lines under construction.






Tehran Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) was officially inaugurated in 2008 by Tehran's mayor, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. BRT has three lines with 60 stations in different areas of the city. As at 2011, BRT had a network of 100 kilometres (62 miles), transporting 1.8 million passengers on a daily basis. The city has also developed a bike share system which includes 12 stations in one of Tehran's districts.[42]

Highways and streets



A number of streets in Tehran are names after international personalities:

Air pollution



The air pollution is due to several different reasons:



Education and research



Allameh Tabatabaei University, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Shahid Beheshti University (Melli University), K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute, Shahed University and Tarbiat Modarres University are other highly ranked universities of Iran located in Tehran.

Tehran is also home to Iran's largest military academy, and several religious schools and seminaries. Notable high schools in the city include 1. NODET (National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents ) which has two parts one for girls : Farzanegan School,and one for boys: Allameh Helli High Schools,2. Alavi High School, 3. Nikan High School, 4. Allameh Tabatabaei High School 5.Aboureihan High School and kherad high school.



Tehran is also the site of Iran's national football stadium on Azadi Sport Complex with 100,000 seating capacity. Azadi Football Stadium is one of the largest in Southern and Central Asia and one of the biggest in the World. Many of the top matches of Iran's Premier League are held here. In 2005, FIFA ordered Iran to limit spectators allowed into Azadi stadium because of a fatal crush and inadequate safety procedures. Other stadiums in Tehran are Shahid Dastgerdi Stadium, Takhti Stadium, and Shahid Shirudi Stadium, among others.



From the Tochal peak, one has a spectacular view of the Alborz range, including the 5,610 metres (18,406 ft) high Mount Damavand, a dormant volcano.




Tehran is the host to four major football clubs in Iran's Premier Football League, namely:

Club Sport Founded League Head Coach
Rah Ahan F.C. Association football 1937 Iran Pro League (IPL) Mansour Ebrahimzadeh
Esteghlal F.C.[51] Association football 1945 Iran Pro League (IPL) Amir Ghalenoei
Naft Tehran F.C. Association football 1950 Iran Pro League (IPL) Yahya Golmohammadi
Persepolis F.C.[52] Association football 1963 Iran Pro League (IPL) Ali Daei

Tehran is also host to many small clubs.

Club Sport League
Parseh Tehran F.C. Association Football Azadegan League
Niroye Zamini F.C. Association Football Azadegan League
Sanati Kaveh Tehran F.C. Association Football 2nd Division
Moghavemat Tehran F.C. Association Football 2nd Division
Oghab F.C. Association Football 3rd Division
Entezam Tehran F.C. Association Football 3rd Division
Naftoon Tehran F.C. Association Football 3rd Division

Main attractions



Tourism and attractions








The following table shows some places for outdoors activities in Tehran:

Tochal Ski resort Darband hiking trail Chitgar Park Niavaran Park Sa'ei Park Daneshju Park Goft-o-gū Park

Religious centers



Graffiti in Tehran

Main article: Graffiti in Tehran



  • The 7th Asian Games were held from September 1, 1974 to September 16, 1974 in Tehran, Iran. The Azadi sports complex was made for the Games. The Asian Games were hosted in South Asia for the second time. Tehran, the capital of Iran, played host to 3,010 athletes coming from 25 countries/NOCs, the highest number of participants since the inception of the Games.[59]
  • The first West Asian Games was first organized in Tehran from 19 to 28 November 1997. It was considered the first of their kind. The success of the games led to the creation of the West Asian Games Federation (WAGF) and the intention of hosting the games every two years.[60]
Panoramic view of Tehran at night

Sister cities

Country City State / Province / Region / Governorate Date
South Korea South Korea Seoul Seoul National Capital Area 1963[61][62]
United States United States Los Angeles California 1972[62][63]
United Kingdom United Kingdom London Greater London 1993
Cuba Cuba Havana La Habana Province 2001[62][64]
South Africa South Africa Pretoria 25px Gauteng 2002[62][65]
Russia Russia Moscow Central Federal District 2004[62][66]
Venezuela Venezuela Caracas Venezuelan Capital District 2005[62]
Belarus Belarus Minsk Minsk Region 2006[62][67]
China China Beijing Hebei 2006[62][68]
United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates Dubai Emirate of Dubai [69]
Philippines Philippines Manila National Capital Region [70]


See also

Iran portal


External links

  • Google Map: Tehran
  • Tehran Municipality website
  • Tehran Geographic Information Center
  • Tehran Traffic Control Center
  • Official Tehran Yellow pages (Ketabe Avval)
  • Tehranimages. Contemporary photos taken in some of the oldest districts of Tehran.
  • PressTV (2012)
  • Part III PressTV (2010)
  • Press TV (2010)
  • Tehran's hazardous air quality PressTV (2010)
Preceded by
Capital of Iran (Persia)
Succeeded by

