Blocks of white marble stones
In the middle of the garden of Azadi Square, a white 45m hight tower welcomes visitors to Tehran.It’ s the “Gateway into Iran” , built in 1971 in commemoration of the Persian Empìre and its achievements,but was dubbed Azadi ( freedom ), after that the Iranian Revolution of 1979 overthrow the monarchy and set up the Islamic Republic, becoming not only the symbol of the city, but of the revival of the whole country.
It’s designer Hossein Amanat used a mixture of Sassanid and Islamic style. Apparently, he also added simbolic elements of the Bahai religion in the design (the frequent use of the 9 in the number of windows and stripes at each side of the tower, for example), this faith being not aloud in Iran.
Eight hundred blocks of white marble stones from the Esfahan region where shaped after a computer program calculation, giving the tower a sober and intentionally austere athmosphere.
There is viewing plattform at the top of the tower, a cinema and a museum. The Qutar Museum hosts a collection of about 50 art and archeological pieces, including the Cyrus’s Cylinder, maybe the most important piece, where the king claims his conquest of Babylon, dated from the 6th century BC.
The Azadi Tower today is waiting for maintenance work. The stone facade is suffering from negligence, bad weather and air pollution, but nothing has been undertaken up to now.
