The Azadi Tower (Freedom Tower), formerly known as the Shahyad Tower, is a monument on Azadi Square in Tehran, Iran. It is one of the sights of Tehran and marks the western entrance to the city, and is part of the Azadi Cultural Complex, which also includes an underground museum. The tower is about 45 metres long and is fully clad in carved marble. It was commissioned by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, on the occasion of the 2500th year of the establishment of the imperial state of Iran. after winning a competition, architect Hossein Amanat was commissioned to design the tower. His ideas were based on classical and post-classical Iranian architecture, popular influences on art in the 1960s after the White Revolution. Iran's increasing wealth led to modernisation programmes and brought the art industry into a renaissance-like period.
I am Maarten Verhees. The focus of my photographs is on the variation of architecture, animals and people. I try to capture the essence of local places in photographs... Read more…