Museum

Collections:

•    Scientific collections:
This section consists of identified specimens of insects, ticks and mites, mollusks, rodents and spiders including holotypes and paratypes. This collection includes over 50000 insect and more than 5000 mite specimens that used to study on insects and mites’ taxonomy by scientists and researchers.

•    General collections:
This part includes identified endogenous and exogenous animals (with a brief explanation of their biology) used for teaching and showing to students. Also, agricultural pests and their control methods in the past and present are shown.

Library:
The specialized library includes books in Russian, English, French, German and Persian languages. There are also some scientific journals in the fields of zoology and entomology to study by interested people.

Building:
The building was constructed by Nikolai Lvovich Markov (1882-1957). Markov constructed some buildings e.g. the Tehran Municipality Building, Ghezel Hesar Prison and two buildings in Karaj, one of which was the Jalal Afshar Zoological Museum. Markov buried in the Armenian cemetery of Tehran after his death. In 1917, this building was Falahat Mozaffari School, but after 6 years of closure, it became a school of agriculture and finally the first Iranian agricultural college was formed. In 1928, the museum was founded by Jalal Afshar, the professor of zoology at the College of Agriculture. The museum continues its work under the supervision of the University of Tehran since 1945 (the separation year of the College of Agriculture from the Ministry of Agriculture). Initially, the museum included a collection of insects and animals collected from the northern and southern provinces of Iran which were used for student education. But gradually, with researches of Prof. Jalal Afshar and the other experts and professors of the Department of Plant Protection, it was extended. The building has an area of 1500 m2 and 17 halls in two floors, which holds more than 50 thousand animal specimens including insects, mites, aquatic animals, reptiles, birds and mammals.

 


Opening hours:
Student visitors (schools and universities): The museum is open on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday 9-12 and 13:30-15:30
Public visitors: In summer the museum is open on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday 9-13 and 16-20 and in spring, autumn and winter it is open on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday 9-17.

Events and Education:

  • Training courses including animal collecting, preservation of insects, taxidermy, identification and classification of animals, ecotourism which will be held especially in the summer
  • Education to introduce plant protection and entomology
  • Educational tours for students in the field of Zoology
  • Workshops in the field of plant protection and zoology for schools and educational centers
  • Training of zoology and animal taxonomy around the year
  • Nature and animal traces with nature tours in the province (practical course)
  • Macro-photography training
  • Training of how to use a microscope, animal dissection and etc. to the children

Shop:

  • Books on wildlife, environment, animals e.g. birds of Iran, filed guides
  • Maps and atlases
  • Decorative boxes, resins, etc. of insects and other arthropods.

Donation and Sponsors
We invite all of everyone to help us in protecting our historical and valuable collections for spiritual and material exploitation. Your only warm welcome will also help. We sincerely thank you in advance for all your help and thanks for the help from our past colleagues and supporters. We hope to take a great step towards restoring the natural treasures of this border.
You do not want to sponsor, but do something good for the Museum of Natural History?
We are happy if you support us with a donation.