Elizabeth Taylor in Iran

According to Vanity Fair, Elizabeth Taylor took her first and only trip to Iran in 1976 with the photographer Firooz Zahedi in tow. The trip resulted in a series of captivating, exotically colorful pictures. In the photograph above, Taylor donned an ensemble that Zahedi says is typical of those worn by tribal women. the actress added coordinating hot-pink lipstick. 

Elizabeth Taylor takes a tourist’s snapshot in Persepolis.

The actress beams upward at the sunlight in the city of Shiraz at the tomb of Hafez, the controversial 14th-century poet.

 Taylor appears covered outside the Shah Chirag Shrine in Shiraz, top left, in this assemblage of four black-and-white photos.

 A close-up outside the Shah Chirag Shrine. “Note that there is a man and a woman entering the mosque together,” Zahedi says of the photo. “[That is] no longer possible under the Islamic regime—women have to enter through a separate door and sit in a separate section.”

 In profile in front of dazzling mosaic and tile work, Taylor stands by the tomb of the poet Sa’di.

A set of four black-and-whites, this time at another mosque in Shiraz.

A close-up of Taylor outside a Shiraz mosque, framed by architectural elements.

Covered by a scarf, Taylor takes tea in an old teahouse in Isfahan, a designated World Heritage Site and once the capital of Persia.

At the teahouse, a close-up of Taylor with downcast eyes.

While in Isfahan, Taylor stayed at the Shah Abbas hotel, a converted royal palace. Here, Zahedi contrasts photos of the palace’s soaring ceilings with those of Taylor applying makeup.

After purchasing bolts of beautifully colored fabric and scarves at the bazaar, Taylor and Zahedi covered the wood-paneled walls and mid-century Danish furniture of her Tehran Hilton hotel room, Zahedi says. Taylor poses with a single flower.