The main draw of Bandar-e Anzali is the lagoon and the Caspian setting. The Anzali Lagoon, a large coastal wetland connected to the sea by a narrow channel, is beautiful and rich in birdlife — at dawn and dusk when fishermen are out on the water it is genuinely lovely. The old harbour area, the bridge over the channel to Ghazian, and the remnants of the Shah-era villa are all worth an afternoon. The city's humid, green character — so different from Iran's arid interior — is itself the attraction.