24 Rare 1960s and 70s Photos From Iran's Official Tourism Office

December 13th, 2013 by Dan Washburn

The last Tuesday night of the Iranian year is known as Chahar Shanbeh Suri, the eve of which is marked by special customs and rituals, most notably jumping over fire.

A tourist souvenir shop with a specialty in hookahs.

A street vendor sells cigarettes, gum, candy and lottery tickets. Found on many city streets.

A performance at a Zurkhaneh, or House of Strength, where exercises passed down from training to be warriors are performed to the music of bells, drums and the songs of prayer.

A flock of Persian sheep. Their bulbous tails store fat, making Persian lamb rich in taste and low in fat.

Persian carpets drying on the mountainside after being hand-washed in the special spring waters in the town of Rey.

At the fruit market with pomegranates and oranges, probably imported from Israel and Valencia.

A caravan of camels delivering goods straight from the village craftspeople or farmers to the shops in Tehran.

A cross-country tour bus makes a pit stop.

Nomads on the move with their entire household and their animals on a spring route.

A typical movie house in Tehran, showing both foreign and Iranian movies.

Caviar fishermen on the shores of the Caspian Sea mending their nets.

A bride with her wedding party of friends.

Trout fishing is a popular sport on the many streams throughout the country.

The Shahanshah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi at a court reception surrounded by the Shah's ministers of state.

At the fruit market — note the Jaffa oranges.

Two guys shooting the breeze, wearing their lamb's wool caps.

The doorman at the Hilton Hotel who found Mahdavi's gold bracelet and refused a tip saying, "An honest man's reward is his honesty."

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Asia Society Museum's landmark exhibition, Iran Modern, which runs through January 5, 2014, in New York, focuses on Iranian art created during the three decades leading up to the revolution of 1979. Learn more

New York City resident Norma Lee Mahdavi lived in Iran from 1960 to 1967 and served as marketing director for the Iranian National Tourist Organization's New York office in the 1970s.

Mahdavi recently let us sort through several boxes of official tourism slides taken in Iran during the 1960s and 70s — and we've reproduced two dozen of our favorites in the gallery above.

Some of the photos were taken by Mahdavi, and others were taken by professional photographers hired as part of the Iranian government's tourism and cultural outreach initiatives.

Mahdavi still runs tours to Iran through her travel company, Iran Custom Travel.