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Contemporary Art Museum
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts has view to a 7,000-square-meter landscape, known as the sculpture park, in which sculptures by renowned international and Iranian artists are on display.
According to Allmuseums website, the museum building in a 5,000-square-meter area, was designed by the architect, Kamran Diba, and inaugurated in 1977.
As an example of contemporary Iranian architecture, its design has been inspired by certain traditional Iranian as well as modern architecture. The building is located adjacent to Kargar Avenue, from which visitors have access to the main entrance gate.
On the way towards the main entrance gate, four semi-arch vertical elements are seen on top of the building several hundred meters away. These elements, which function as skylights above the atrium inside, are metaphorical gestures of traditional wind-catchers in some provincial towns bordering the desert of central Iran. Similar semi-arched skylights are utilized, either linearly or in a fragmented manner, above the galleries throughout the building.
The parallel skylights are mounted atop the rectangular single story of the galleries which constitute the main function of this angularly set complex. It is a concrete frame building with non-geometric rough stone finish on the exterior, and the roof’s skylights are covered with seamed copper panels.
The first gallery, called Chahar-su (four-way), surrounds the spacious atrium and provides direct access to the exterior sculpture court, coffee shop, bookshop, second gallery and the central ramp which circularly descends one floor, under the four skylights, providing further access along its course to the library, administrative and curatorial offices.
From the second gallery, on the ground floor, the visitors follow a rather long descending path, which leads to the seven remaining galleries, terminating in the ninth gallery located at a close proximity from the bottom of ascending central ramp and the atrium.
At the center of this solemn atrium, a rectangular pool, inspired by the concept of “Hoze“ (small pool) in Iranian architecture, is placed. It has filled the museum with a mysterious haze of artistic sense and charm.
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Iran Desert Night at NASA
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, has chosen a photo by Iranian photographer, Amir Hossein Abolfath, as its “Photo of Day“ in its website.
Abolfath, a photographer of Iran’s astronomy and nature, had taken this photo during an event known as the Messier Marathon, Persian daily Iran reported.
The photo was recorded from the ancient Bahram Palace in Iran’s Kavir National Park.
The Messier Marathon is held annually in Iran’s desert during which photographers gather to observe stars.
Completing the marathon requires viewing all 110 objects in the 18th century French astronomer Charles Messier’s catalog in one glorious dusk-to-dawn observing run. As daunting as it sounds, there are often favorable weekend dates for completing the task that fall on nearly moonless nights near the March equinox.
NASA has written on its website that “Many northern hemisphere stargazers embark on a Messier Marathon. This colorful, six-hour-long time exposure of a group dedicated to running this year’s Messier Marathon includes celestial star trails along with terrestrial lighting trails from about 200 amateur astronomers.“
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Tourism Guide
Promotion and Exhibition Department of ICHHTO has published a book titled ’In the Eye of a Passerby’ to introduce Iran’s tourism sites and natural attractions, reported Irtat website.
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Kermanshah Tourism
To Be Revitalized
A provincial official said tourism infrastructure in the western province of Kermanshah will be revitalized in the current Iranian year (started March 20).
Head of Kermanshah Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department, Asadollah Biranvand, said forest parks and other natural attractions of the province will be revamped in cooperation with the Department of Environment, ISNA reported.
He said preliminary measures have been taken to set up electricity and drinking water facilities in the vicinity of natural and historical attractions.
Recreational centers, accommodation areas, parking lots and toilets will be expanded in natural and historical places across the province.
“We need five billion rials to revitalize the tourism infrastructure in each forest park of the province, so that we can attract more tourists,“ Biranvand said.
He added that his department has plans to complete 60 tourism projects by the end of this year (March 2009).
“We hope to turn Kermanshah into an exemplary tourism zone,“ Biranvand said.
Ancient Compass Discovered
Archeological studies on some engravings on rocks on Kharq Island have identified them as a compass and an ancient backgammon board.
The engravings are between 2,000 and 3,000 years old, archeologist Reza Moradi Ghiasabadi, who recently conducted the studies, said.
Ghiasabadi explained that the compass is rectangular-shaped with rounded angles on a flat rock located on the ground beside an ancient route, CHN reported.
“A curve has been engraved on the upper half and four lines forming a cross stretch to the four sides of the rectangular shape,“ he noted.
Ghiasabadi pointed out the lines have been placed in a position to determine the cardinal points and are based on the Global Positioning System (GPS).
Some parts of the compass have been damaged due to collapse of rocks from the upper mountains.
“It is a unique discovery in Iran and a great effort should be made to protect the same because we must not relocate it due to its use in global positioning,“ Ghiasabadi noted.
He has also discovered a series of game boards carved in different shapes on stone and coral reefs on the shoreline.
The backgammon boards, which are being threatened by erosion, bear round holes measuring four to ten centimeters in diameter.
Archeologists had previously discovered wooden game boards at the 5200-year-old Burnt City, near the city of Zabol in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, and a similar game board made of stone in Kermanshah.
“The Khark game boards have been created in different shapes and are something like modern backgammon boards,“ Ghiasabadi stated.
He has identified seven types of ancient game board on the island so far.
In mid-November 2007, an Achaemenid era stone inscription was discovered during a road construction project on Kharq Island, which reads “(This) land was a dry area with no water; (I) brought happiness and welfare, water wells.“
The cuneiform inscription, which is engraved on a piece of uneven rock encrusted with coral, is also threatened by natural calamity and vandalism because the relic has no effective protection.
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