| Souvenirs |
| IRAN: Travel & Tourism - Souvenirs |
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Persian Carpets: Iran is the World's leading carpet producer. Persian carpets are in great demand everywhere across the world in spite of the existing challenges in the global carpet market. Five basic factors namely pile material and construction, design and color composition, border design and foundation threads determine the quality of a carpet while characteristics such as the size of the carpet and its knot density are also among the factors that determine a carpet's value.  knots tightly tied in a row form the pile or nap of the carpet. Wool, silk, goat hair, jute or camel hair may be used as pile material, but a good wool carpet will far outlast one made from the other materials. However, silk carpets are very desirable owing to their light weight and dense pile construction which often exceeds 1000 knots per square inch. The best Persian carpets which manifest the highly developed artistic craftsmanship of the Iranian people arc usually woven in Tabriz ,Kashan ,Qom ,Isfahan ,Mashad, Kerman ,Naeen ,Josheghan, Hamadan and Turkman Sahara: while the art of carpet weaving is also widely appreciated and practiced in almost every other part of the count>. Standing on top of the list of Iran's exports ,carpets gained 20533497000) Rials worth of hard currency for the country. only in the last 9 months of the year 1990. Gelims: These fine works of Persian tapestry are sometimes as beautiful as the universally known Persian carpet; yet they arc far less expensive. Gelims arc woven in most parts of Iran and are widely presented in Tehran at carpet and handicraft shops. As their prices may unreasonably vary in different places, we suggest that you buy them at the official handicraft shops where expert information is also available to assist you in choosing the gelim you like to buy. Caviar:  Caviar is a precious export goods of Iran. No country can compete with Iran in processing and producing caviar because Iran's caviar is well known as the best of its kind across the world. Many foreigners regard caviar as one of the few characteristically Iranian goods; and those who come to Iran as tourists or official guests view the offering of caviar as a sign of generous hospitality and special treatment. Among them, many may ike to see how caviar fish is caught in the beautiful Caspian sea. The huge caviar ( Sturgeon ) fish of the Caspian sea sometimes weighs 1bout 1500 kilograms. Up to 100 kilograms of caviar may be taken from a fish like that. The annual output of fisheries establishments in northern Iran is about 200 tons. A visit to the fisheries research centers in northern Iran where the caviar fish is bred or caught can be interesting to many tourists. Dates: With more than 38 million palm trees across its semi tropical regions Iran is a major producer of dates in today's world with an annual output of more than 351 thousand tons most of which is consumed inside the country. However, the superior quality of Iranian date has made it an export item. The history of palm plantation in Iran goes back to as far as 6000 years ago. The country has always had vast palm plantations in Khuzestan, Kerman and Fars and Hormozgan provinces. Khuzestan with about ten million palm trees is the country's leading date producer. Among the customers for Iran's date export are Germany, Russia, Britain, Holland, Canada, Belgium, Denmark and Austria. Curiously, some Persian Gulf countries like Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar also import their requirements for dates from Iran; another point that confirms the superior quality of Iranian dates. New methods of cultivation has led to a rise in production of dates in recent years, while modem packing and handling methods promise a major boost in the export of the product (hat has recently become more popular in intenational market as it has been found to prevent some forms of cancers. Pistachio:  Pistachio has for long been an exclusively Iranian fruit. Even today, with the introduction of the product from some other countries, Iranian pistachio still ranks first in international market thanks to its rich taste, unique way of processing, nutritive attributes and the eye catching appearance that has made it famous worldwide as smiling pistachio. The pistachio tree, Pistachio vera, is grown in most parts of Iran particularly in Kerman province and in the less dry regions around the country's contral desert. . Pistachio became an economically significant fruit since the 1930s when export markets were discovered and at the same time cultivation methods were improved. There are about 40 million pistachio trees in Iran with over 80 thousand hectares of land under cultivation. The annual output is well above 70 thousand tons of which more than lo thousand ton is consumed in the country and the rest is exported to almost all over the world. Rafsanjan, Sirjan, Zarand, Ravar, and Shahr Babak in Kerman province are the leading pistachio growing regions of Iran. They produce more than 90 percent of the country's pistachio while the rest is produced in Damghan, Ardakan, Yazd, Saveh, Ghazvin, and some other cities in Khorassan and Isfahan province. While the pistachio produced elsewhere in the world is of one inferior type, there are five different types of the fruit grown in Iran all of which are popular in a vast export market that spans from Germany to Holland, Belgium, Austria, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Handicrafts: There are a vast variety of handicrafts in Iran from silkwork to tapestries and from ceramics to woodwork. There are many handicraft shops in Tehran, however, you may find the most reasonable quality and prices at the shops affiliated with the Iranian Handicrafts Organization. Of particular interest in those shops are the fine Gelims woven by Iranian tribesmen and women. And the good news is that the amount of handicraft allowed to pass the Iranian customs is unlimited. |
