Vakil Bazaar – Shiraz

Bazaar-E-Vakil of Shiraz is one of the most famous historical and traditional bazaars of Iran. This bazaar had been built with the order of Karim Khan Zand (Iranian King) at about 200 years ago. (It is thought that the market originally was established by the Buwayhids in the 11th century AD, and was completed mainly by the Atabaks of Fars, and only was renamed after Karim Khan Zand in the 18th century.)

The Bazaar has beautiful courtyards, caravansarais, bath houses, and old shops which are deemed among the best places in Shiraz to buy all kinds of Persian rugs, spices, copper handicrafts and antiques. All the financial, business, internal and external exchanges have been taken place in this bazaar and it had been the financial heart of Shiraz and now it still serves people’s demands and one can buy Shiraz souvenirs and handicrafts out here.
It has three pass ways (for costumers), the shop frontage (two stairs upper than the ground) and shop space (place of selling), and 5 grand doors in its 4 corners and like other middle eastern Bazaars there are a few numbers of mosques and Imamzadehs constructed adjacent or behind the Bazaar.

Also 74 multiple arches of this bazaar with more than 11 meter height are higher than the other bazaars’. This bazaar has 5 grand doors in the corners. It has also two north-south and east-west strings which are crossed.The North-south part of bazaar begins from Darvaze-Ispahan and continues to southern alley of Sara-ye-moshir. In both parts of this section there are 41 pairs of shops in front of which there exist stone made stages engraved with Toranj. For avoiding moisture, the stores are built about 1 meter upper than the ground. Each if the stores have storerooms and two floors.

Also in north eastern part of the bazaar there are some old caravansaries such as Roghani, Gomrok, Ahmadi which have doors to the bazaar. Each of them has many stores. North-south part of the bazaar is called Bazazan Bazaar (Bazaar of drapes).
East-west part has two sections:

1- Eastern part of Chahar-Soogh which is called Alaghe-Bandan bazaar and belongs to herbal medications stores.

2- Western part of Chahar-Soogh which is called Tarkesh-Dooz-Ha bazaar and is the center of Iranian carpet stores.

Cultural Heritage association has recorded Bazaar-E-Vakil in June of 1927 with the number of 924.

Address: Bazaar-E-Vakil, Shohada Square, Shiraz, Fars province, Iran