Carpet Museum of Iran

The Carpet Museum of Iran stands beside Laleh Park in central Tehran, in a purpose-built structure completed in 1976 whose exterior loom-like concrete screen was designed to evoke a traditional weaving frame. The museum holds one of the world's most significant collections of Persian carpets, with pieces ranging from 16th-century Safavid-era court carpets to 19th- and 20th-century tribal and nomadic weavings from regions across Iran, including Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan and Qashqai-weaving areas. The permanent collection is displayed on two main floors, with the upper gallery generally showing older, finer court and city-workshop carpets under controlled lighting to protect dyes and fibers, and the lower level presenting tribal and regional weaving traditions alongside explanatory material on knotting techniques, dye sources and regional design motifs. Carpets are rotated periodically out of display to limit light exposure, since natural dyes and wool fibers degrade under prolonged illumination, meaning the specific pieces on view can vary between visits even though the museum's overall narrative -- tracing the development of Persian carpet weaving by region and period -- remains constant. The building itself, along with its below-grade gallery lit by skylights, was an early example of purpose-built museum architecture in Tehran, distinct from the converted historic mansions used by several of the city's other museums. A small library and research section supports scholarship on carpet history and technique, and the museum periodically hosts temporary exhibitions on specific weaving regions or historical periods.