TEHRAN – Construction of a carpet museum in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan province, northwest Iran is complete by 70 percent, the provincial tourism chief has said.

The museum is estimated to be inaugurated by the Iranian calendar year 1404 (started on March 21, 2025), Ahmad Hamzehzadeh explained on Sunday.

A budget of 500 billion rials ($1.2 million) has been allocated to the project, he noted.

There will be a display of historical carpets and a demonstration of the process of weaving and designing carpets at the museum, the official added.

Persian carpets are sought after internationally, with the medallion pattern being arguably the most characteristic feature of them all. Weavers spend several months in front of a loom, stringing and knotting thousands of threads.

Soaked in history and culture for millennia, Tabriz embraces several historical and religious sites, including the Jameh Mosque of Tabriz and Arg of Tabriz, and UNESCO-registered Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex, to name a few. The city became the capital of the Mongol Il-Khan Mahmud Gazan (1295–1304) and his successor. Timur (Tamerlane), a Turkic conqueror, took it in 1392. Some decades later, the Kara Koyunlu Turkmen made it their capital. It was when the famous Blue Mosque was built in Tabriz.

The city retained its administrative status under the Safavid dynasty until 1548, when Shah Tahmasp I relocated his capital westward to Qazvin. During the next two centuries, Tabriz changed hands several times between Persia and the Ottoman Empire. During World War I, the city was temporarily occupied by Turkish and then Soviet troops.

Tabriz was declared a world craft city of carpet weaving by the World Craft in 2016. It also bore the title of the Islamic Tourism Capital in 2018.

ABU/AM