IRAN'S CROSSROADS

Tehran, capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran, located on the slopes of the Elburz Mountains looking south over Iran's central plateau, lies on age-old fields of war. Alexander the Great pursued Darius III here, Mongols sacked and plundered, and the great 19th-century Qajar dynasty made this its capital. The shah of Iran built a monument to 2,500 years of Iranian monarchs in the center of Tehran but was forced to flee the country soon after.