In the south of Iran as far as the shores of the Persian Gulf, lies a territory which has been called Pars (Fars) since ancient times. Fars has had the city of Shiraz as its capital since the beginning of the Islamic era. For thousands of years the territory has been the prosperous habitat of Iranian ethnic groups, especially the Elamites, from whom many remains are still discernible in different places in Fars such as Kourengoun in Mamassani, Naqsh-e Rostam, Persepolis, Tappeh Sabz and Tappeh Malian.

Three thousand years ago, a people who called themselves Aryans, left the south of today's Russian and poured down on the to the Iranian plateau. After numerous clashes with the natives, they became victorious and made themselves settlements. Most of these Aryans were shepherds and nomads and had tribal ways of life.

Their religion was a monotheistic one. They called Oromazes, and ascribed to natural elements-water, fire, wind and earth – the divine Farra (splendor). They considered Ahriman (Satan) the source of all vice and darkness. Parsees were one of Iranian people who came to Fars three thousand years ago. They settled down in place such as Anshan and Pasargad which was their first capital. The capital was later transferred to Hamadan. Late in the eighth century B.C., Medes became powerful in western Iran, collected their forces and started fighting with Assyrian plunderers, defeated them after one hundred years, and founded a great dynasty which lasted for 120 years and was finally crushed by Cyrus the Great. He was the son of Cambyses and a Median princess and established the greatest empire of the time by his remarkable deeds. The first ruler of Fars has such characteristics to be considered a sagacious and competent king by historians and Zolqarnein by great scholars. After ruling about thirty years, Cyrus was killed during a fight with Masagti migrating groups. Then Darius ascended the throne of the Achaemenian Empire and reigned over Iran for thirty six years. They reigned over this territory for about two hundred eighteen years until Alexander invaded Iran and overthrew the Achaemenian monarchy but his rule did not last more than seven years.

Although the governors of Pars yielded to the power of the Arsacidae, Pars was never annexed to the Arsacidae Empire.

According to evidence, Pars was the only territory where true Zoroastrianism and its holy scriptures had been preserved. Ardashir I founded the Sassanide dynasty and established Zoroastrianism throughout Iran. Estakhr, the capital of Pars, was a great and prosperous city in the time of Sassanian. The capital of the empire was transferred to Taysafun after the establishment of the dynasty.

From among important historical pre-Islamic remains in Pars to be named are Persepolis, Pasargad, Naqsh-e Rostam, Qasr-e Ardashir, Qal'eye Dokhter, Bishaboor, Qasr-e 'Abunasr, Band-e Bahman, Qasr-e 'Sassani in Sarvestan and many others's.

In the third century A.H. when the power of caliphs was in decline, Fars was conquered by Ya'qub-e Lays-e Saffari the founder of the Safavid dynasty. Afterwards, Fars was occupied by 'Ale-Buyeh and after them, the Seljuks (Saljuqian) dominated Fars. In the time of the Saljuk's decline, Sonqor Ebne Mowdood, established the Atabak dynasty which ruled over the Fars territory in 543A.H. 'Abesh Khatoon, the last ruler of the dynasty, married Manko Teimunr in 667 A.H. after having reigned for one year. She was a nominal queen thereafter and in no time Fars was handed over to Mongulk knights. In 754 A.H. 'Amir Mobarez-Eddin of 'Al-e Mozaffar occupied Fars. The kings of this dynasty ruled over Fars until 795A.H. when their dynasty was destroyed by 'Amir Teimur. In 909 A.D. Shiraz came under the domination of Shah Esmaeil, the Safavid. In the battle between Nader Shah and the Afghans led by 'Ashraf, Shiraz sustained destruction and great losses. This battle ended with the defeat of the Afghans in 1142A.H. After Nader's death Shiraz became subject to disturbance again, but with the onset of Karim Khan-e Zand's rule, peace and prosperity came back to the region.

After Zand dynasty came the rule of the Qajars. After the death of Fathali Shah (1250A.H.) his son Hossein Ali Mirza Farmanfarma pretended to the throne but did not succeed.During the Qajar era, Fars was still considered one of the most prosperous and important states of the country.

Construction works such as Jame-e Atiq Mosque, Masjed-e Now, Madreseye Khan, numerous bridges and Caravanserais, Qeisariyeh Market in Lar, the Zand collection: Bazr-e Vakil, Arg-e Karim Khan, Vakil Mosque, Divan-Khaneh (Government Offices), Naranjestan-e Qavam, Nasiralmolk Mosque, gardens of Afifabad, Delgosha and Eram, all are among precious monuments of our time.

Fars it one of the most renowned province of Iran, enjoying international fame in domains of culture, listerature, and gnosticism, because of having the above mentioned invaluable political historical monuments in addition to tombs of great scholars, poets and gnostics such as Sa'di, Hafez, Abu Abdollah-e Khafif, Molla Sadra, Khajoo, Sheikh-e Roozbehan, Bu Eshaq-e Kazerooni and Sib-weih. Holy shrines of Shah-e Cheragh, Seyyed 'Aloaddin Hossein, Ali Ebn-e Hamzeh have always won Fars the reverence of lovers of the Prophet's household and the Shiites of the world.

Fars has an area of about 124 thousand square kilometers which is 7.6% of the total area of the Islamic Republic. It has approximately 4 million with an annual growth rate 2.1%. It comprises 24 townships, 73 rural districts, 194 villages & 72 towns. The capital city of Fars is Shiraz and the townships are Abadeh, Arsenjan, Bavanat, Darab, Eglid, Estahban, Farashband, Fasa, Firoozabad, Gir&Karzin, Jahrom, Kazeroun, Khonj, Khorrambid, Lar, Lamerd, Mamasani, Marvdasht, Mohr, Neiriz, Pasargad, Sepidan, Shiraz & Zarrindasht.

There are more than 3000 places of historical, religious, natural & natural-historical interest in Fars. The present Encyclopedia of Fars Historical Monuments has illustrated part of the attraction.

 In format, it is composed of articles arranged alphabetically & its entries seek to provide accurate and up-to-date historical, religious & cultural monuments and also important natural attractions in Fars Province.

 According to the books, references and also documents of Fars Cultural Heritage & Tourism Organization the entries have been chosen and arranged in two kinds of Main & Referring entries.

In addition to using common & important references for writing the articles, we attempted to make them up-to-date by field-work.

 For more information, references are generally placed in the end of each article. The complete bibliography, entries index & archeological word index at the end of encyclopedia provides the reader with further research references.

"Encyclopedia of Fars Historical Monuments" is actually a part of "Fars Encyclopedia" which is designed as a research tool responding to the needs of scholars, specialists, and students in history, geography, culture, art, religion, literature, archeology, anthropology, and biography of science, poets, writers, artists, rulers, books & printed matters of Fars province.