Valiasr Street (Persian: ولی عصر ) is a tree-lined street in Tehran, Iran, dividing the metropolis into western and eastern parts. It is considered one of Tehran's main thoroughfares and commercial centres. It is also the longest street in the Middle East, and was reported as one of the longest in the world by former BBC (now Al Jazeera) journalist Rageh Omaar during the television documentary Welcome to Tehran.
The street was built by Reza Shah Pahlavi's order and called the Pahlavi Street. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution the street's name was changed initially to Mossadeq Street (in reference to former nationalist prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq) and later to Valiasr (a reference to the 12th Shi'ite Imam). Valiasr Street is the hub of different activities in Tehran and innumerable shops and restaurants as well a large number of parks (like Mellat Park), highways, cultural centers are situated along this long avenue.
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Famous quotes containing the word street:
“If the street life, not the Whitechapel street life, but that of the common but so-called respectable part of town is in any city more gloomy, more ugly, more grimy, more cruel than in London, I certainly don’t care to see it. Sometimes it occurs to one that possibly all the failures of this generation, the world over, have been suddenly swept into London, for the streets are a restless, breathing, malodorous pageant of the seedy of all nations.”
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