In October 1971, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi staged a spectacular celebration near the ancient ruins of Persepolis to commemorate what he described as 2,500 years of Persian monarchy, symbolically linking his rule to the empire founded by Cyrus the Great.

More than sixty heads of state, kings, queens, and royal guests attended the event, including Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace of Monaco, Prince Philip of the United Kingdom, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, and King Hussein of Jordan.

To host them, planners created a luxury “tent city” in the desert. Designed by the Paris interior design firm Maison Jansen. The complex consisted of about fifty prefabricated luxury apartments hidden inside traditional tent exteriors arranged in a star-shaped pattern around a central fountain, with curving walkways connecting the tents and gardens. The layout was intended to evoke the symmetry and formality of a royal Persian garden.

To prepare the site for the celebration, planners  transformed the surrounding desert landscape. 

Thousands of trees, shrubs, and flowering plants were transported to the area and planted to create gardens and shaded walkways around the tent city. Irrigation systems were installed so the new greenery would survive in the arid environment. 

To complete the illusion of a lush oasis, roughly 20,000 songbirds were brought in from Europe so birdsong would fill the air during the celebration.

The temporary residences built for the guests were far more than ceremonial tents. Each suite was air-conditioned and equipped with modern plumbing, electricity, telephones, and telex lines, allowing visiting heads of state and officials to contact their governments during the celebration.

The famous Paris restaurant Maxim's designed the menu and supervised the meal. About 150 chefs and senior staff traveled from France, and with additional waiters and assistants nearly 600 people were involved in preparing and serving the banquet.

More than 250 tons of supplies were flown into Iran for the celebration and transported by truck convoys to the desert site near Persepolis.

Guests dined from Limoges porcelain, drank from Baccarat crystal, and the tables were laid with polished sterling silver flatware.  The long banquet tables were decorated with orchids, lilies, and other elaborate floral displays.

The multi-course meal included dishes such as roast peacock stuffed with foie gras, lamb with truffles, and quail eggs with caviar. French wines such as Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Latour, along with Dom Pérignon champagne, accompanied the meal.

Estimates of the celebration’s cost vary widely, but many historians place the total near $100 million in 1971, equivalent to several hundred million dollars today.

The event was described as one of the largest gatherings of royalty since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

The celebration was designed to showcase Iran’s ancient heritage and modern ambitions. For critics inside the country, however, the extraordinary extravagance came to symbolize a widening gap between the monarchy and ordinary citizens.

Just eight years later, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 would bring an end to the monarchy.