How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites does Iran have?

27 as of 2023 — 25 cultural and 2 natural. This ranks Iran 10th in the world, ahead of Greece and Turkey and just behind Russia. Several more are on the tentative list awaiting inscription.

What was the first Iranian site inscribed?

Three sites were inscribed simultaneously in 1979: Persepolis (Takht-e Jamshid), Tchogha Zanbil (the Elamite ziggurat), and Meidan Emam (Naqsh-e Jahan Square) in Isfahan.

Which Iranian natural sites are UNESCO-listed?

Two: the Lut Desert (Dasht-e Lūt), the hottest place on Earth's surface (70.7 °C recorded), inscribed in 2016; and the Hyrcanian Forests along the southern Caspian shore, ancient temperate broadleaf forests inscribed in 2019.

Can you visit Persepolis today?

Yes. Persepolis is an open archaeological site near Shiraz, accessible year-round. The neighbouring Naqsh-e Rostam, with the rock-cut tombs of Darius the Great and Xerxes, lies six kilometres north and is usually included on the same visit.

What is the Persian Garden inscription?

A serial UNESCO listing (2011) of nine historic gardens — including Bagh-e Fin (Kashan), Bagh-e Eram (Shiraz), and Pasargadae's royal garden — that together represent the chahar-bagh (four-garden) design that influenced Mughal and Andalusian gardens.

What's on Iran's tentative list?

Roughly 60 sites await evaluation, including the Alamut castles of the Assassins, Hegmataneh (Ecbatana, the Median capital under Hamadan), the Persepolis–Pasargadae cultural axis as an extended landscape, the Caspian-coast Masouleh village, and the Qanat-fed historic city of Nain.

How does Iran rank globally?

Iran is 10th in the world for total inscriptions, ahead of countries like Greece (19), Turkey (21) and Brazil (23). Italy (60), China (59) and Germany (54) lead the list. Per square kilometre, Iran ranks among the densest concentrations of heritage sites in Asia.

World Heritage

The UNESCO Treasures of Iran

Twenty-seven sites — twenty-five cultural and two natural — make Iran the tenth most-inscribed country on the UNESCO World Heritage list, a recognition of three thousand years of unbroken civilisation on the Iranian plateau.

Image: Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan — Wikimedia Commons

At a Glance

Iran on the World Heritage list

Inscribed Sites

As of 2024

10th

Global Ranking

Among 195 nations

Cultural Sites

From 1979 to 2024

Natural Sites

Lut Desert, Hyrcanian Forests

Distribution of Iran's 27 sites by UNESCO category.

Selected sites across Iran

The Full List

Iran's 27 World Heritage Sites

UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Iran (in chronological order of inscription)
#	Site	Year	Province
1	Tchogha Zanbil (Elamite ziggurat)	1979	Khuzestan
2	Persepolis	1979	Fars
3	Meidan Emam (Naqsh-e Jahan), Isfahan	1979	Isfahan
4	Takht-e Soleyman	2003	West Azerbaijan
5	Pasargadae	2004	Fars
6	Bam and its Cultural Landscape	2004	Kerman
7	Soltaniyeh	2005	Zanjan
8	Bisotun (inscriptions of Darius)	2006	Kermanshah
9	Armenian Monastic Ensembles	2008	West Azerbaijan / East Azerbaijan
10	Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System	2009	Khuzestan
11	Sheikh Safi al-Din Ensemble, Ardabil	2010	Ardabil
12	Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex	2010	East Azerbaijan
13	The Persian Garden (nine sites)	2011	Multiple
14	Gonbad-e Qabus	2012	Golestan
15	Masjed-e Jameh of Isfahan	2012	Isfahan
16	Golestan Palace	2013	Tehran
17	Shahr-i Sokhta (Burnt City)	2014	Sistan-Baluchestan
18	Cultural Landscape of Maymand	2015	Kerman
19	Susa	2015	Khuzestan
20	Lut Desert (natural)	2016	Kerman / Sistan-Baluchestan
21	The Persian Qanat (11 qanats)	2016	Multiple
22	Historic City of Yazd	2017	Yazd
23	Fars Sasanian Archaeological Landscape	2018	Fars
24	Hyrcanian Forests (natural)	2019	Gilan / Mazandaran / Golestan
25	Trans-Iranian Railway	2021	Multiple
26	Cultural Landscape of Hawraman/Uramanat	2021	Kurdistan / Kermanshah
27	The Persian Caravanserai (54 sites)	2023	Multiple

Highlights

Selected sites in depth

Persepolis Apadana — inscribed 1979.Wikimedia Commons

Naqsh-e Jahan Square at twilight, Isfahan — Safavid masterplan inscribed 1979.Wikimedia Commons

Pasargadae, tomb of Cyrus — 2004.Wikimedia Commons

Chogha Zanbil Elamite ziggurat — 1979.Wikimedia Commons

Bisotun inscription of Darius — 2006.Wikimedia Commons

Historic City of Yazd — 2017.Wikimedia Commons

Golestan Palace, Tehran — 2013.Wikimedia Commons

Fin Garden — part of the Persian Garden serial (2011).Wikimedia Commons

Sheikh Safi al-Din ensemble, Ardabil — 2010.Wikimedia Commons

Masjed-e Jameh of Isfahan — 2012.Wikimedia Commons

Tabriz Historic Bazaar — 2010.Wikimedia Commons

Armenian Monastic Ensembles — 2008.Wikimedia Commons

Lut Desert — 2016 (natural).Wikimedia Commons

Hyrcanian Forests — 2019 (natural).Wikimedia Commons

Shazdeh Garden, Mahan — Persian Garden serial.Wikimedia Commons

Further panoramas

Persepolis Apadana — 36 columns of the audience hall begun by Darius I (518 BCE).Wikimedia Commons

Naqsh-e Jahan Square — Safavid masterplan, second-largest square on earth.Wikimedia Commons

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque — Safavid tilework interior.Wikimedia Commons

Arg-e Bam — the world's largest adobe citadel, listed 2004.Wikimedia Commons

Yazd — Towers of Silence and the qanat-fed historic city (2017).Wikimedia Commons

Cultural Landscape of Maymand — rock-cut dwellings still inhabited (2015).Wikimedia Commons

Dome of Soltaniyeh — Ilkhanid mausoleum of Öljaitü, 1305 (listed 2005).Wikimedia Commons

Taq-e Bostan reliefs — part of the Fars Sasanian landscape inscriptions context.Wikimedia Commons

Shahr-e Sukhteh (Burnt City) — proto-urban site of the third millennium BCE (2014).Wikimedia Commons

Sources & Further Reading

References

All imagery is sourced from Wikimedia Commons, public-domain museum collections (British Museum, Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Museum of Iran), or UNESCO World Heritage records. No AI-generated images are used. Scholarly text is synthesized from Encyclopædia Iranica, the Cambridge History of Iran, and peer-reviewed publications.

FAQ

UNESCO sites of Iran FAQ

Regional spread

World Heritage sites by province

Iran's 27 inscriptions span 19 provinces, but four — Isfahan, Fars, Yazd and Khuzestan — together account for almost half the list. The clustering reflects the geography of historical capital cities: Achaemenid and Sasanian Fars, Safavid Isfahan, and the qanat-based desert urbanism of the central plateau.

Distribution of Iran's 27 UNESCO sites by region
Region	Number of sites	Notable examples
Fars (south)	4 + serial nodes	Persepolis, Pasargadae, Sasanian Landscape, Eram (garden serial)
Isfahan (centre)	3 + serial nodes	Naqsh-e Jahan, Masjed-e Jameh, Chehel Sotoun (garden serial)
Yazd (centre-east)	2 + serial nodes	Historic Yazd, Dolat Abad (garden serial), Meybod qanat
Khuzestan (south-west)	3	Tchogha Zanbil, Shushtar Hydraulic System, Susa
Kerman (south-east)	2 + serial nodes	Bam citadel, Maymand, Shazdeh (garden serial), Lut Desert
Azerbaijan (NW)	3	Takht-e Soleyman, Sheikh Safi al-Din, Tabriz Bazaar
Tehran (capital)	1	Golestan Palace
Caspian provinces	1 (natural)	Hyrcanian Forests (Gilan, Mazandaran, Golestan)
Khorasan & Sistan	2	Gonbad-e Qabus, Shahr-i Sokhta
Cross-province serials	4	Persian Garden, Persian Qanat, Caravanserai, Trans-Iranian Railway

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