Shiraz is popular with tourists, and has plenty of hotels and restaurants. During the Zand dynasty (1757-1794), Shiraz was the capital of Persia and considered to be the heartland of Persian culture.
Shiraz is famous for poetry, the arts, roses, education, gardens, nightingales — and wine. Shiraz produced and exported wine from the 17th century, a practice that came to an end with the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The tombs of famous Persian poets Hafez and Saadi are in Shiraz.
But by far, the most popular and magnificent attraction in Shiraz are the ruins of Persepolis, once the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded in 518 B.C. and ransacked by Alexander the Great in 330 B.C. Persepolis is rightly listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Writing in the Telegraph, journalist Benedict Brogan referred to Persepolis as "one of the wonders of the classical age" that "dazzles by its scale, beauty and location."
“Shiraz is a city of gardens, luscious fruits and bijou palaces," Brogan said. "The vines of the eponymous grape were grubbed out by the revolution, but its greenery still attracts Iranians who delight in its parks and the pleasure of picking pomegranates, limes, and figs. Groups of art students sketch and fiddle with Facebook on their smartphones. It is possible to spend a happy day strolling about its thronged streets, eating small green tomato plums coated in salted herb paste followed by a bowl of the local faloodeh, a lemon noodle ice cream."
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