Azerbaijan Museum

This impressive historic museum, the second most important archeology museum in the country, stands in the city of Tabriz on Imam Street, next to Kabood Mosque. The massive three-storey building interestingly showcases Iran’s fruitful history and culture. Designed by the famous Frenchman, Andre Godard, and inspired by the local architecture, it was established by Esmail Dibaj.

The great museum puts on view some amazing works of art from the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras. Currently it holds 12,000 antique objects and precious art works.

The historic building, with basement, ground and first floor, presents different historically significant objects:

The basement displays the awesome statues made by the great Persian sculptor, Ahad Hosseini. The sculptures impressively depict the story of human beings and their evolution in the last centuries. Among other highlights are the historic inscriptions, which make up the most recent part of the museum in the basement. In this section, you will also be fascinated by skeletons, tombstones, and stone statues.

The ground floor represents one astonishing scene, the skeletons of a man and woman, dating from the first millennium BCE. The corpses were discovered in scientific explorations around the mosque in 1378, solar calendar. They are in fact part of a 3000-year-old cemetery in Tabriz.

A favorite place for history and art lovers, the first floor exhibits artifacts from ancient civilizations in Iran, including objects from Nishapur’s civilization in the fourth century all the way through the Qajar period. The works unveil Iran’s history and development; of note are white enamel objects designed with Islamic motifs and eye-catching Kufic script as well as pottery from the Ilkhanate and a unique lock from the late sixth century.

The museum has a lot to offer and is well worth a visit.