Tabriz

Tabriz is the administrative centre of East Azerbaijan and the largest city in north-western Iran, about a million and a half people at roughly 1,350 metres. Routes through Iranian Azerbaijan and towards the Turkish border start here — the Bazargan crossing is some 300 km away. The city is Turkic-speaking: Azerbaijani is what you hear in the street, and it comes through in the food, the music and the temper of the bazaar.

Main sights

• Tabriz Bazaar — one of the largest covered bazaars in the world, a UNESCO site under brick vaulting. Separate rows for carpets, gold and spices; wholesale deals are still struck here, not just sales to visitors.
• Blue Mosque (Kabud Mosque) — a fifteenth-century Qara Qoyunlu building famous for its turquoise tilework. The earthquake of 1780 all but destroyed it; part of the facing has been restored, part left as it stands.
• Arg citadel (Arg-e Alishah) — a fourteenth-century mudbrick hulk, the tallest historic structure in the city.
• Azerbaijan Museum — one of Iran's largest archaeological collections after the one in Tehran, with finds from the north-west of the country.
• El Goli Park (Shah Goli) — an artificial lake with a pavilion in the middle of it, where the city goes for an evening walk.
• Kandovan — a village 60 km out where the houses are hollowed into cones of volcanic tuff and are still lived in; the Iranian counterpart of Cappadocia.

Food and money

The cooking is Azerbaijani: Tabrizi kufta, an outsized stuffed meatball, thick ash soups, dizi. Tabriz is known for its sweets — nougat, qurabiya — and for its carpets. One practical point: foreign bank cards do not work in Iran, everything is cash. Change dollars or euros in advance; in Tabriz that is done at exchange offices and in the bazaar, and on arrival it is convenient to get a local tourist card topped up with cash.

Getting there

Tabriz airport (TBZ) takes domestic flights and some regional ones. There is a railway to Tehran, with an overnight train. The centre is compact, and taxis flagged down in the street or booked through local apps are the easy way between the sights. Tabriz is the logical place to start out for the monastery of Saint Stepanos and Lake Urmia.

When to come

The climate is sharply continental: winters snowy and freezing, summers dry and hot. The best window is late April to June and September to October, when days are warm and evenings cool.