Carpet Museum
Iranian carpets, the dazzling beauty and excellent quality of Persian carpets are well known all over the world.
One of the most distinguished manifestations of Iranian culture and art is carpet-weaving and dating back to the Bronze Age, but as the materials used in carpets including wool and cotton, decay into dust during the course of time, archaeologists couldn’t make any special discovery during the archaeological excavations. The all things which are remained for us from the early ages as evidence of carpet-weaving are a few pieces of worn-out rugs.
Some fragments do not help us for recognizing the carpet-weaving characteristics of pre-Seljuk period. Among the oldest carpet pieces discovered in Eastern Turkestan, and also some of the hand-weavings of the Seljuks of Asia Minor on exhibit in Ala’edin Mosque in Konya and Ashrafoghlu Mosque in Beyshehir, Turkey. These pieces kept in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul and the Mowlana Museum in Konya.
In 1949, a unique archaeological excavation, the exceptional Pazyryk carpet was discovered among the ices of Pazyryk Valley, in Altai Mountains in Siberia. A group of Russian archaeologists discovered this carpet in the grave of a Scythian prince by under the supervision of professor Rudenko. Interesting to know, this carpet is 1.83×2 meters and has 36 symmetrical knots per cm2.The weaving technique used in the Pazyryk carpet indicates a long history of evolution of this art. Most experts believe that the Pazyryk carpet is the final achievement of at least one thousand years of experience and history.
After that, In 1978, the founders of the Carpet Museum of Iran, Tehran established this Museum with a several Persian carpets and kilims, in order to develop the art of carpet-weaving in the country, and also to provide a source to satisfy the need for research about the historical background and evolution of this art
The Carpet Museum of Iran has a lot of beautiful architecture and facade resembling a carpet-weaving loom is located on the northwest of Laleh Park in Tehran. This museum exhibition galleries covering 3400 m2 and consider of exhibitions of carpets, kilims and the carpet designs.