The Azadi Tower was built to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the foundation of the Imperial State of Iran by architect Hossein Amanat who based the design upon classical Iranian architecture. The entire grand design was financed by the huge wealth generated by Iran as a major oil-producing nation before the revolution; however, as a member of the persecuted Bahá’í Faith, Amanat fled Iran to Israel during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. He went on to design the equally famous Bahá’í Arc buildings in Haifa, Israel, and weirdly enough – the House of Worship in Samoa.
