NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRAN (MUZEH-YE IRAN BASTAN) / MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY

The National Museum of Iran, or Archaeology Museum, is located in a building of sassanide inspiration built between 1932 and 1937 on plans of French André Godard, responsible for archaeological services in Iran until 1960. It houses a very important collection covering pre-Islamic history to the Sassanide dynasty. These treasures, especially in Suse and Persepolis, date for some of the th and th centuries BC Explanatory texts in English.

The collection includes splendid Neolithic vases found in Tépé Sialk, dating from the Fifth to the first millennium BC, as well as aiguières and other vessels from Turang Tépé, Marlik and Choqa Elam ziggourat in Suse. Beautiful collection dedicated to the famous Animal animal Bronzes. At the collapse of the Protoélamite civilization around 2 700 BC, the nomads of the Loristan, located north of the Susiane, made themselves brick for Mesopotamia. Also note the huge head head of winged lion, Suse, ships and other animal-inspired aiguières, glazed bricks frescoes containing winged winged animals, des vases in putty of bitumen (oil products were used…). Dating back to the Second Millennium B.C., the Hammurabi Laws Code is only one copy, the original being exhibited at the Louvre museum. After the destruction of Babylon by the Elamites, these latter reported in Suse the famous legal code engraved in stone. From Persepolis: the achéménides bas-reliefs of Darius I, a fresco of glazed bricks from the Apadana, a trilingual inscription of Darius I engraved in the stone, a colossal top in shape of a winged bull bull, a little head achaemenid in lapis-lazuli and so many other wonders, such as the tablets at the cuneiform inscriptions, the Penelope marble statue and the surprising stone dog black. Dating from the beginning of our era: bas-relief of Artaban V, a king parthian from the early th century, a bronze statue (parthian dynasty) and sasanians mosaics discovered in Bishapour. The museum's small boutique offers guides, books devoted to miniatures and persian poetry, and works on art and archaeology in Iran (in English, French and German). The national museum has just undergone renovation. Collections dating from the Islamic period have been set aside in a new building and present a beautiful journey through Islamic art since the Muslim conquest of Persia.