The capital of Iran

We arrived quite late in the capital of Iran, Tehran. We took a late flight from Birjand and landed around 22 pm local time. It was quite late to go to the hotel and again we were rather exhausted. But when we left the airport and saw Tehran for the first time, it was all worth it. What a beautiful skyline at night! We immediately noticed the difference with the East side of the country. Birjand was already a growing city but incomparable with Tehran.

When we arrived in the evening, we didn’t know much about this city, except that the people speak Persian or at least a dialect of Persian. We needed to wait until morning to learn more about this city and its inhabitants. So the next day we got up full of enthusiasm and went out to discover this huge city. We found out a lot about Tehran that day. I’m going to try to reduce the facts to a minimum. The thing that really shocked me is the fact that Tehran is in fact the 32nd national capital of Iran. And last year, they were planning to change the capital again! Government says it’s necessary for safety and administrative reasons. Now the plan is finalized and they’re started relocating all defense-related industries out of the capital. I was quite shocked when I heard this. I understood that they’re afraid of a potential earthquake that would destroy the entire capital.

It certainly is hard to understand when you know that the economy of Tehran is flourishing and knowing the capital is really important for the industry. About 30% of Iran’s public-sector workforce and 45% of large industrial firms are located in Tehran and almost half of these workers work for the government. Today many modern industries of this city include the manufacturing of automobiles, electronics and electrical equipment, weaponry, textiles, sugar, cement, and chemical products.
So as you see we found out a lot about the city. We discovered all this by moving through the city from the one location to the other with the metro. Perhaps I didn’t tell you this yet: Tehran has one of the most convenient, if not the most convenient, metro system in the world. I had never seen a metro this clean! It was a pleasure to cross the city by metro.

So as you see we found out a lot about the city. We discovered all this by moving through the city from the one location to the other with the metro. Perhaps I didn’t tell you this yet: Tehran has one of the most convenient, if not the most convenient, metro system in the world. I had never seen a metro this clean! It was a pleasure to cross the city by metro.

Maybe it was not a bad idea at all to do everything by metro, because another fact of Tehran is that they have to deal with a massive air pollution problem. It is estimated that about 27 people die each day from pollution-related diseases. So this was Tehran in a nutshell. It’s a fascinating city with unfortunately some big problems. It’s time to move on to the next and last stop in Iran, Tabriz. You’ll hear from us very soon!