Gilan Rural Heritage Museum: (09:00-dusk Thu-Fri) It is located 18km south of Rasht (2km off the Qazvin highway). Six full homesteads complete with rice barns are already active in 150 hectares of woodland. Local crafts (thatching, mat-making, and cloth-weaving) are displayed and there are tightrope-walking mini-shows. Houses display local tools left lying around as though the owners had just nipped out to the pub.

Rasht Museum: (08:00-17:30 Tue-Sun, 09:00-13:00 Fri) A small museum but well presented in a 1930s house. Its mannequin displays illustrate Gilaki lifestyle, amid a selection of 3000-year-old terracotta riton drinking horns in the shape of bulls, rams and deer. Supping from such vessels supposedly endowed the drinker with the powers and skills of the animal depicted.

Kuchuk Khan Statue & Mausoleum: (Shohada Sq) The central horseman statue is Kuchuk Khan, the Jangali leader of ‘Soviet Iran’. A steady flow of well-wishers also visit his tomb (Manzariyeh St), 2km southwest of Shohoda Sq (also known as Shahrdari Sq), sheltered by a contemporary brick gazebo with intricate wooden roof.

Gilan Cottages: Supposedly ‘typical’ thatched-roof with upper wooden balustrades is shown in many brochures, but is very rare in situ.