The Grand Bazaar is a historical market located in southern
Tehran. The bazaar is claimed to be the largest mall on the planet. Though, nobody knows when exactly this bazaar appeared on the face of the earth, however, such market construction has thousands years of history in
Iran and
Rey, for instance, was a center of Silk Road trade in old times.
Tehran’s grand bazaar was built following the ancient tradition. The structure of
Tehran’s market has been under restoration plan lately, to keep the historical bazaar-like architecture as it is in the older corridors.
Traditionally, the
Tehran bazaar was split into corridors, each specializing in different types of goods, including copper, carpets, paper, spices, and precious metals, as well as small traders selling all types of goods.
Today, modern goods are available as well, in addition to the many traditional corridor traders that still survive.
Iranian architecture makes use of abundant symbolic geometry, using pure forms such
...see more as circles and squares, and plans are based on often symmetrical layouts featuring rectangular courtyards and halls.
While the current bazaar is most associated with the 19th century onwards, its roots go back much further.
Despite relying heavily on this historical legacy, much of the bazaar itself was constructed fairly recently. The oldest remaining buildings, walls and passages in the bazaar today very rarely exceed 400 years, with many being constructed or rebuilt within the last 200 years.
In this sense, the current grand bazaar is one of the newest in the Middle East.
The old sections of the bazaar are generally similar in architectural style, while parts added in the 20th century often look markedly different; critics say that less care was taken in the construction of later sections.
However, in an effort to increase the prestige of the bazaar, projects to beautify the bazaar through the use of plaster moulding and decorative brickwork were undertaken late in the 20th century.
the wide and expanded network of the Bazaar of Tehran was extended from the south of Arg up to Molavi Avenue. In this expanded network, the components of the Bazaar (Timchehs, houses, rows, corridors, docks, caravanserais) appeared together with buildings such as mosques, schools, bath-houses with beautiful patterns.
The most important existing bazaars of Tehran include Udlajan, cloth sellers, shoemakers, goldsmiths, ironsmiths, copper smiths, Abbas-Abad, Bein-ol-Haramein, Cheheltan (the oldest row dating to Fath-Ali Shah's reign), the Larger Chaharsou, Masjed Jame, Hazrati, Pachenar etc.
The Grand bazaar is still an important place of commerce for Tehranis, Iranians, traveling merchants and - increasingly - tourists. However, much of the trade and finance in the city has moved to the north of the city, leaving the bazaar somewhat decreased in importance.
Still, in addition to the traditional goods on sale, the market for watches and local jewelry is apparently growing, most likely for the benefits of tourists.
As is in keeping with the market spirit, tourists are encouraged to haggle.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.iranreview.org
http://dreamofiran.com
