Arriving in New York City at the age of 19 to study music, Hafez Nazeri knew he wanted to do big things.

Now, little more than a decade later, the young Iranian classical composer is riding high with a chart-topping album featuring 38 Grammy Award-winning musicians.

"I left Iran with the hope of maybe one day creating music that can connect with the entire world, music that can show another dimension of my culture, and my history," Nazeri says. "I came to New York with the hopes of integrating two cultures, and creating a new product that is no longer Eastern or Western."

It appears he is well on his way to accomplishing that goal.

Nazeri's debut album, "Untold: The Rumi Symphony Project," hit number one twice on Billboard's Classical chart.

Listen: Sound Cloud

Read More: CNN

Tar is a Persian long-necked, waisted instrument, shared by many cultures and countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Republic of Azerbaijan, and other areas near the Caucasus region. The word tār means "string" in Persian, and it is claimed to be the root of the names of the Persian setar and the guitar [guitar=gui+tar means "five strings" in ancient Persian, the Europeans added the sixth string to the instrument and redesigned it].

Tar is one of the most important musical instruments in Iran and the Caucasus. The general trends of Persian classical music have been deeply influenced by tar players.

The tar appeared in its present form in the middle of the eighteenth century in Persia [the original form has a very long history]. The body is a double-bowl shape carved from mulberry wood, with a thin membrane of stretched lamb-skin covering the top.

The fingerboard has twenty-five to twenty-eight adjustable gut frets, and there are three double courses of strings. Its range is about two and one-half octaves, and it is played with a small brass plectrum.

(source: wikipedia)

I've shared a beautiful music played by tar on my page, enjoy! :)

"Burnt City" is a part of a very ancient civilization (date back to 3000 BC), which was completely unknown to the world since 20th century. It was one of the largest cities at the dawn of the urban era. Wikipedia says: "The reasons for the unexpected rise and fall of the Burnt City are still wrapped in mystery. Artifacts recovered from the city demonstrate a peculiar incongruity with nearby civilizations".

In the pictures you can see the reproduction and animation of a drawing on a pottery found overthere, which archaeologists recognize it as the first animation in the world.

The world's earliest known artificial eyeball, the oldest known backgammon, dice and caraway seeds, together with numerous metallurgical finds (e.g. slag and crucible pieces), are among the finds which have been unearthed by archaeological excavations.

Other objects found at the site include a human skull which indicates the practice of brain surgary.

Burnt City is placed in the south east of Iran in the bank of Helmand river. For more information about this ancient civilization visit Burnt City

Notice that the animation shows a goat eating grass! :)

"Baba Tahir Oryan" is a famous Persian poet who lived about a thousand years ago. Most of his life is clouded in mystery. He is well-known for his short poets (couplet) which are full of introspection and almost all of them bring new ideas into mind. As I like his poems, I translated four of them. I can explain the meaning if somebody is interested:

I am crying of both of the eye and the heart
Because what the eye sees, the heart remembers
I will create a knife, made of hard steel
I will cut the eye, to make the heart free

Are you a lion or a tiger?! Thou my heart!
To me always, you're a fighter; Thou my heart!
Once if I could, I will blood you; Thou my heart!
I'll see that what color are you; Thou my heart!

Thou whose tresses like the gittern chord of me
What do you seek of ruinous health of me?
Thou who do not aim to be friend of me
Why do you cross nightly the dreams of me?

Happy the moment when my sweetheart comes through the door
The night of separation and the day of despondency will expire
I will eagerly expel my spirit from my heart
And in place of, I will settle my sweetheart

It's a gloomy Monday evening and I can sense the scent of moisture in the air. Here it rarely happens to rain in such a summery day. My friend replies to me it's possible but not probable. I murmur it's also probable!

I say goodbyes to my friend and take my path to the other side of the town, where I'm going to play basketball. Yet I'm not far away that I feel the hit of the first drop to my face. Each step I take the rain intensifies and the world seems more ambiguous behind my glasses. The sidewalk is alike a clean mirror which the dark picture of the passengers slips on it.

It's half a kilometer remaining, when the thunder starts. The town is about 2700m height and the thunder hits the ground so close. I'm in fear because of the bad memories of the thunder, and unconsciously my hands go vibrating. I've been always escaping of such stressful situation before a panic attack occur to me, but this time I continue and face the most dreadful thing to me.

Consequently I'm in the field house, completely wet and now watching the guys playing basketball. I'm a little late so I change my clothes and join them immediately. I don't know why, but I'm insanely good in the game today; I can say the best ever. So many successful 3 point hits just in a few minutes of playing! And the weird thing is I feel a deep love to these guys I hated before. I'm thinking something has changed with me. I can hear the symphony of the rain, a miracle washing the whole past!