Tus

Ferdowsi completed the Shahnameh around 1010, a verse epic of some fifty thousand couplets covering the mythical and historical kings of Iran, and it is the central work of Persian literature and a major reason the language survived in the form it did. He was born and died near Tus, and his grave there was marked by a modest structure until the 1930s, when a new mausoleum was built in white marble in a deliberately Achaemenid manner, a cubic block with a stepped top set in a walled garden with reliefs from the poem around it. The ruins of the medieval town of Tus, with its enormous mud-brick walls and the Haruniyeh, a domed brick building of uncertain purpose, stand nearby.

What you actually see

• Ferdowsi's marble mausoleum - a 1930s block in Achaemenid style.
• Reliefs from the Shahnameh - scenes from the epic around the tomb.
• The Haruniyeh - a domed brick building whose purpose is disputed.
• Medieval town walls - mud-brick ramparts of the old city of Tus.

When to go

April to June and September to November. Two to three hours. Iranians visit constantly and read at the tomb, particularly on Ferdowsi day in May. Mornings are quieter.

Honest expectations

The mausoleum is twentieth century and its Achaemenid styling is a modern political statement rather than a historical form. The medieval town is largely eroded walls. Interpretation is limited in English. The garden gets crowded on holidays.

Nearby

Mashhad is south-east; Nishapur lies west.