Mehrshahr () is an affluent area located south-west of

Karaj Karaj (; ) is a List of cities in Iran by province, city in the Central District (Karaj County), Central District of Karaj County, Alborz province, Alborz province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. Earl ...

city in

Alborz province Alborz province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Karaj, which lies 10 km west of Tehran, at the foothills of the Alborz mountains. Alborz is Iran's smallest province in area. History In 2010, Karaj ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

History

In 1960s the area was mostly made up of large

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

s which was designed and built by Ali Saroukhani and owned by the members of the

Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty () is an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian royal dynasty that was the Pahlavi Iran, last to rule Iran before the country's monarchy was abolished by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. It was founded in 1925 by Reza Shah, Reza S ...

. They built the

Pearl Palace Pearl Palace (; Romanized: ''kakh-e Morvarid / Kāx-e Morvārid''), also known as Shams Palace (; Romanized: ''kakh-e Shams / Kāx-e Šams'') is an estate in Iran, designed by Taliesin Associated Architects (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation) on instr ...

(Persian: kakh-e Morvarid), and a small set of scattered large

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

s. The area was not open to the public. After a decade the number of these houses increased and the area was reshaped into a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

. The area was designed by

Taliesin Associated Architects Taliesin Associated Architects was an architectural firm founded by apprentices of Frank Lloyd Wright to carry on his architectural vision after his death in 1959. The firm disbanded in 2003. It was headquartered at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, ...

(Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation). Since 1979, when Pahlavi family left Iran after the

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Im ...

, the area has been opened for public residency and became more populated. The old areas are now recognized as Phases One, Two and Three, which are around the Shahrdari boulevard. The Pearl Palace is placed in phase 3. Many other new towns like Kianmehr, as well as Phase Four and Phase Five have also been built around this area.

References

{{coord, 35.8008, N, 50.9053, E, source:wikidata, display=title Karaj