Dear Mehrban Jan,

Thank you for the additional information. It funny there is always a history to every thing and often we do not give it a moment of thought. This was the case with me and the statue of Ferdowsi in that eponymous square. I am grateful to you for opening my eyes to the work of a great Iranian artist, Master A.K. Sadighi.

Dear @khaleh mosheh, I am not sure about the chronology of the images, my guess is that they are a mixture from different dates. The statue of Ferdowsi (in the video) is not the one presently at the square, the Ferdowsi statue that is in the square was erected according to Wikie in 1971, so the Image of the square predates the new statue and 1971.

There are also images of the Shahyaad square with was built in 1971 so that footage is from after 1971. Much of the rest of the footage of Tehran seems to predate the seventies. I have seen a documentary by a Swiss filmmaker of Iran in the sixties, which made me have the exact reaction as that of yours to this video, the cities were much more sparsely populated. 250% is the population growth of the country in the last three decades. I am sure Tehran takes a huge brunt of such population explosion.

Below please see the link to the wikie page of the sculptor of Ferdowsi’s Statue (Abolhassan khaan Sadighi), the photo of the magnificent statue is at the bottom right hand side of the page.

http://www.iranchamber.com/art/asadighi/abolhassan_khan_sadighi.php

Thank you for the Clip Mehrban Jan- Tehran in the clip seems such a quiet place , comparatively- I'm guessing its Ferdowsi square at the begining..is that right?

Dr. Saadat Noury, your poem is beautiful, thank you for sharing it.

Dear Dr Saadat Noury, please forgive me for the typo in your name in my earlier post.

Dear Dr. Sadaat Noury,
Great to see you here and thank you for the link to your poem. Unfortunately the link goes to an "error" page. It is a bit difficult to link to one's legacy pages. I am going to look for the link to your poem and will post it if I find it.

My bad. I noticed the link did not work; here is the poem

برگشته ام به شهر قدیمی که داشتم
شهری که یاد و قلب خود آنجا گذاشتم
امروزه شهر_ من، رخت سیاه داردوگریان وخسته است
افسرده مانده است و ز شادی گسسته است
آن روز های دور، چه دل ها که با خدا
عاشق به کار نیک و فضیلت ها
این روز ها ، رخ ابلیس بر فضا
جمعی به چنگ و ساز_ رذ یلت ها
امروزه شهر_من،افسرده مانده ست وزشادی گسسته است
دیوار ها شکسته و بس کوچه بسته است
این قهقرا به کجا می کشاندم
دراین هوای دوزخی شهر
هر سوکه می روم نفسی خوش نیست
هرآشنا وغریبی که می رسد
گوید درین دیارکسی خوش نیست
هریک به انتظار، درحدانفجار
امروزه شهر_من، رخت سیاه داردوگریان وخسته است
بغضی زخا طره ، به گلوها نشسته است
منوچهر سعا دت نوری

بر گرفته از مجموعه سروده های امید و آرزو

Dear Mehrban
Thank you for sharing this beautiful gift. It also reminded me of this poem which I wrote after a visit to Tehran years ago
http://legacy.iranian.com/main/blog/m-saadat-noury-36.

Shazdeh jaan, what would Shemiraan be without Tehran?! :)

Thank you Mehrban Aziz.