Since the 1950s, population growth in Tehran created a huge demand for land, resulting in the destruction of many public and private gardens that once graced the city.
As part of wide range of measures to limit urban sprawl, Tehran Municipality supported efforts to protect the natural environment of Alborz Mountains that form the city’s northern perimeter. During the late 1970s, the 12-hectare Jamshidieh Stone Garden was created at the foot of the mountains. It proved to be highly popular.
According to Caroun website, in 1992, Tehran Municipality commissioned the park’s architects, Bafte-Shahr Consulting Architects and Urban Planners, to prepare a wider study for the outlying areas north of Tehran.
The first part of the study involved the 30-hectare Ferdowsi Garden set in a series of steep, south-facing gullies scattered with lose rocks and boulders. To assess the site’s potential, the design team camped there for a month, and their design emerged, to a large extent, from the natural topography.
Landscaping
The primary intervention is a series of stone-paved paths and steps that rise up the hill, providing a grand view of the city. Along these paths, areas for refreshment and entertainment have been created within the natural topography, including four cultural houses, built to represent the distinctive style of Iran’s Azeri, Kurd, Turkmen and Zagros citizens. The paths ultimately lead to a sculpture garden, being developed to the east and hiking trails into the upper valleys.
The routes explore a number of themes, both cultural and natural. The entry point is a paved open space dominated by a statue of Ferdowsi (940-1020), Iranian epic poet, after whom the park is named. From this space, a wide stepped pathway forms a “cascade passage“, which branches into a network of routes across the site, bordered by a variety of indigenous plants, chosen for their form, color and environmental conformity. Between the paved paths, trees have been planted to provide shade and color during the changing seasons.
The primary material is rough-hewn stone, collected from the site or quarried from higher up the mountain ridge. Walls and terraces have been constructed in undulating patterns, according to the size and shape of the stones, minimizing cutting. And many large boulders have been made into focal points for spaces along the routes. In a number of places, outcroppings of rock have been imaginatively sculpted into forms such as fish, lizards and bears, creating an environment where respect for nature can be playfully developed among the young.
In the design of the four cultural houses, traditional materials and forms reflect the way of life of the groups represented. Red stone was brought in from Azerbaijan for “Azeri House“, the “Zagros House“ takes the form of an open-sided nomadic tent while “Turkmen Cultural House“ comprises a series of circular spaces with distinctive domed roofs.

Other Elements
Water is one of the main organizing elements in traditional gardens. With no natural source of water available on the site, the designers ingeniously created water channels that lead from drinking fountains in the public spaces.
Lighting is another important aspect of the design, with all of the principal paths to the summit illuminated by pole-mounted lights. The distinctive patterns made by the lights against the slopes of Alborz Mountains are now a landmark for the city below.
The project, which was completed in 1997, enjoys great popularity and has had a direct and positive impact on the city, alleviating pressure for the development on the slopes of the Alborz Mountains and creating an environment, where people, nature and culture thrive.
An imaginative reinterpretation of the traditional Persian “Paradise“ garden adopted to modern needs, Ferdowsi Garden, pays testimony to the importance of environmental design within the overall process of urban development.

Some 13 British and Australian tourists will come to Iran to visit special flora and fauna of Zagros mountain ranges for 12 days in the coming weeks.
Tour leader, Mehran Etemadi, told ISNA the tour for Iran’s unique flowers such as inverted tulips is held every year.
British tourists accompanied with two professional ecologists who started studying flora and fauna of Zagros slopes 10 years ago have been visiting Iran for about five years.
Etemadi underscored that the tourists can only take photos from flora and fauna and should avoid picking flowers.
“Their main objective is to see the flowers of Zagros slopes, especially inverted tulips, corn-poppy and lichen. They will also tour the historic and cultural attractions, also fauna and flora of Tehran and Shiraz, as well as the national parks of Bamu, Semirom, Kouhrang and Aligoudarz,“ he noted.
Etemadi, who will be a tour leader for the fourth time, also said, “Ordinarily speaking, conservationists provide good services to the tourists but there are problems concerning their accommodation in regions such as Semirom, Aligoudarz and Kouhrang.
Since most tourists are old no tents could be set up for their accommodation. In fact, accommodation is the main problem of tourists.“