Cultural tours in Iran

Imam Square in Isfahan is one of the world’s finest public spaces, an ‘outdoor drawing room’ to rival St Mark’s in Venice – and it is just one of the highlights of our cultural tour of Iran that has several departures in Autumn and Spring.

Led by experts in Persian history and Islamic art, the itinerary devotes plenty of time to mighty Persepolis – the showcase and soul of the First Persian Empire, sacked by Alexander the Great – and the architectural treasures of Isfahan, such as the exquisite Shaikh Lutfollah Mosque and, in the Armenian quarter, the 17th-century cathedral. We also visit the atmospheric ruins of Pasargadae, which predate Persepolis, the poetic southern city of Shiraz, the desert city of Yazd, a Zoroastrian stronghold with strange wind towers and subterranean water courses, and, finally, the capital, Tehran. Here the world-class National Museum rounds off and contextualises your journey through successive Persian civilisations.