All About Shab-e Yalda, Ancient Persian Festival Marking Winter Solstice
By Nazanine Nouri
Since time immemorial, Iranians around the world have celebrated the ancient Persian festival of Shab e Yalda, the longest and darkest night of the year -- or winter solstice.
Yalda is a deeply...
Iran’s ‘Qanat’ Irrigation Tunnels Become UNESCO World Heritage Sites
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee has recently inscribed 11 Iranian treasures on its list of World Heritage sites. They're neither mosques, nor monuments, nor majestic royal palaces: they are qanats, those ancient irrigation tunnels that...
Why Fresno, California Has Declared Oct. 14 Shahbanou Farah Day: Interview
By Kayhan Life Staff
The city of Fresno in California officially proclaimed Oct. 14 as Shahbanou Farah day to mark the birthday of Iran’s former Empress Farah Pahlavi. Iran’s imperial flag was flown over the...
Major Exhibition on Ancient Iran and the Classical World Opens at Getty Museum
By Nazanine Nouri
The first major U.S. exhibition to highlight the relationship between the Classical world and Ancient Iran recently opened at the Getty Villa Museum in Los Angeles.
The exhibition, titled “Persia: Ancient Iran and...
LA Celebrates Nowruz, The Persian New Year, in Style
By Fred Parvaneh
Nowruz (meaning 'new day' in Persian) is an ancient celebration rooted in Zoroastrianism that marks the beginning of the New Year. Nowruz coincides with the vernal equinox, meaning the first day of...
Star Architect Farshid Moussavi Co-Curates Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Teaches at Harvard
Iranian-born Farshid Moussavi is one of the very few women at the top of the architectural profession. A professor of architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, she currently has an exhibition...
Remains of Iranian Prince Discovered in Southern Russia
May 16, 2019 - Archeologists excavating a burial site in the southern Russian town of Nikolsk, near the city of Astrakhan on Volga River, have discovered skeletal remains of eight individuals, one of which...
All About Nowruz: The Persian New Year
Nowruz marks the start of a New Year for over 300 million people around the world –foremost among them the people of Iran, for whom it is the most important festive occasion of the...
Iran’s Lut Desert: Now On UNESCO’s World Heritage List
Question: which geographical area has become the first Iranian site to be inscribed on UNESCO's natural heritage list?
Answer: The Lut desert, or Dasht-e-Lut. Located in the southeast of the country, this is the 27th...
COMMENTARY: How Christmas, Mithraism and Yalda Night Are Closely Linked
By Fereydoun Vahman
A large percentage of the world population is celebrating Christmas and the New Year. Although the birth of Jesus and the start of the Christian New Year are a week apart, the...
