DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Construction workers in may have unearthed the mummified remains of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the father of the country's last monarch, nearly four decades after the Islamic Revolution toppled the dynasty.

The recent find of the gauze-wrapped body has triggered intense speculation and revived discussion of 's dynastic past, which the clerically-run government has spent decades trying to suppress. A mob demolished Reza Shah's tomb shortly after the 1979 revolution, and the family lives in exile.

The monarchy's widespread abuses did much to fuel the revolution, but its mystique persists as grapples with economic woes and calls for reform ahead of the 40th anniversary of the uprising.

Reza Shah's grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, has tweeted that he believes the remains to be those of his grandfather even as waits for forensic experts to determine whose body they found.

Workers discovered the mummified remains while on a project at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim, whose minarets rise behind the site where Reza Shah's mausoleum once stood. A digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Pictures of the body, as well as one man posing with it, quickly ricocheted across social media in .

A spokesman for the shrine dismissed the idea of a mummy being found there. However, Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council's cultural heritage and tourism committee, was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency on Monday as saying it's “possible” the mummy is the body of Reza Shah.

Authorities say they'll need to conduct DNA tests to confirm whose body it is.

State television has yet to report on the find, likely due to restrictions on discussing the Pahlavis.

State media typically refer to the Persian dynasties, including the Pahlavis, as “despotic,” focusing on the abuses of the monarchs' feared SAVAK intelligence agency and their lavish lifestyles.

Reza Shah's own rise gave birth to modern , which was still called Persia until he ordered foreign diplomats to cease using the name. He came to power in 1925, ruling as an absolute autocrat who used taxes and the country's burgeoning oil revenues to rapidly modernize the nation.

His decisions echo today, particularly his 1936 decree banning women from wearing long, flowing black robes known as chadors. He ordered men to wear Western clothes and bring their wives to public functions with their hair uncovered, borrowing from the secularization of the Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a contemporary.

The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women. Shiite clerics, angry over his secular beliefs, purges and mass arrests of opponents, held grudges that would foment the coming revolution. Controversies over the chador and hijab persist in today .

's strong trade ties with Germany, Reza Shah's push for neutrality in World War II and Western fears over its oil supplies falling to the Nazis ultimately sparked a Russian-British invasion of the country in 1941. Reza Shah abdicated in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at the insistence of the occupying British forces.

Reza Shah died in South Africa in 1944. His body was taken to Cairo, mummified and remained there for years before being brought to . It was placed in a grand mausoleum near Tehran, which then-President Richard Nixon visited in 1972.

After 1979, however, Islamists viewed the mausoleum as an affront.

ian cleric Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, who ordered the executions of hundreds after the revolution, led a mob of supporters who used sledgehammers, jackhammers and other tools to demolish the mausoleum.

Khalkhali later would write in his memoirs that he believed the shah's family took Reza Shah's body when they fled the country. The shah's family, however, maintained the body remained in . His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was buried in Cairo after dying of cancer in 1980.

Today, 's youth remain fascinated by the time before the revolution. Television period pieces have focused on the Pahlavi dynasty, including the recent state TV series “The Enigma of the Shah,” the most expensive series ever produced to air in the country. While incorporating romances or mobsters into the tales, all shows uniformly criticize the royal court.

Reza Shah's grandson, Reza Pahlavi, has seen his profile rise following the election of President Donald Trump, who appears to hold the future of the nuclear deal in the balance. From exile, the crown prince has agitated for an end to 's theocracy. Gauging national sentiment about restoring the monarchy remains impossible.

Pahlavi took to Twitter on Tuesday to say he believed the remains were his grandfather's, asking ians to offer condolences online and take part in peaceful demonstrations. He earlier warned 's current government “not to hide anything.”</s>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A mummified body discovered near the site of a former royal mausoleum in Iran may be the remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and the father of the country’s last shah.

The recent find of the gauze-wrapped body — and the speculation it triggered — puts new hurdles in the way of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to fully erase the country’s dynastic past, which includes the jack-hammered destruction of the autocrat’s tomb immediately after the 1979 revolution.

Yet, as disaffection and economic problems grow ahead of the Islamic Revolution’s 40th anniversary, mystique around Iran’s age of monarchies persists even with its own history of abuses.

Reza Shah’s grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, already tweeted about it as forensic experts in Iran try to determine whose body they found.

Construction workers discovered the mummified remains while working at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim, whose minarets once rose behind Reza Shah’s own mausoleum. A digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Pictures of the body, as well as construction workers posing with it, quickly ricocheted across social media in Iran.

A spokesman for the shrine dismissed the idea of a mummy being found there. However, Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency on Monday that it’s “possible” the mummy is the body of Reza Shah.

Authorities say they’ll need to conduct DNA tests to confirm whose body it is.

State television has yet to report on the find, likely due to complications that mentioning the Pahlavis can entail.

State media typically refer to the Persian dynasties, including the Pahlavis, as “despotic,” focusing on the abuses of the monarchy’s feared SAVAK intelligence agency and their once-lavish lifestyles.

Reza Shah’s own rise gave birth to modern Iran itself, then still called Persia until he ordered foreign diplomats to cease using the name. He came to power in 1925, ruling as an absolute autocrat who used taxes and the country’s burgeoning oil revenues to rapidly modernize the nation.

His decisions echo today, particularly his 1936 decree banning women from wearing long, flowing black robes known as chadors. He ordered men to wear Western clothes and bring their wives to public functions with their hair uncovered, borrowing from the secularization of Turkey’s first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a contemporary.

The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country. Shiite clerics, angry over his secular beliefs, purges and mass arrests of opponents, held grudges that would foment the coming revolution. Controversies over the chador and hijab persist in Iran today .

Iran’s strong trade ties with Germany, Reza Shah’s push for neutrality amid the coming of World War II and Western fears over its oil supplies falling to the Nazis ultimately sparked a Russian-British invasion of the country in 1941. Reza Shah abdicated in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at the insistence of the occupying British forces.

Reza Shah ended up in South Africa, dying there in 1944. His body was taken to Cairo, mummified and held for years before returning to Iran. A grand mausoleum near Tehran held his body for years, which then-President Richard Nixon visited in 1972.

After 1979, however, Islamists viewed the mausoleum as an affront.

Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, who ordered the executions of hundreds after the revolution, led a mob of supporters who used sledgehammers, jack hammers and other tools to demolish the mausoleum.

Khalkhali later would write in his memoirs that he believed the shah’s family took Reza Shah’s body when they fled the country. The shah’s family, however, maintained the body remained in Iran. His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was buried in Cairo after dying of cancer in 1980.

Today, Iran’s youth remain fascinated by the time before the revolution. Television period pieces have focused on the Pahlavi dynasty, including the recent state TV series “The Enigma of the Shah,” the most expensive series ever produced to air in the country. While incorporating romances or mobsters into the tales, all shows uniformly criticize the royal court.

Reza Shah’s grandson, Reza Pahlavi, has seen his profile rise following the election of President Donald Trump, who appears to hold the future of the Iran nuclear deal in the balance. From exile, the crown prince has agitated for an end to Iran’s theocracy — though gauging national sentiment about restoring the monarchy remains impossible.

Pahlavi took to Twitter on Monday night to tell Iranian officials he is watching what they will do next with the body.

“I warn the responsible authorities not to hide anything,” he wrote.</s>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The discovery in Iran of a mummified body near the site of a former royal mausoleum has raised speculation it could be the remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, says it’s “possible” the mummy is of Reza Shah. Khalilabadi told the state-run IRNA news agency the body was discovered during construction work at a Shiite shrine in Tehran.

Reza Shah pushed to modernize Iran before being deposed and dying in exile during World War II.

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Iran’s last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the country’s Shiite-dominated theocracy.

His grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, warned Iran on Twitter: “not to hide anything.”</s>Has a symbol of Iran's pre-revolutionary past come back to haunt it?

Speculation that a body found near a former mausoleum south of the Iranian capital might be that of Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi Dynasty who once strived to modernize the former Persia, has stoked Iranian interest in their country's pre-revolutionary and pre-Islamic past.

It has also prompted a warning for Iranian authorities from Reza Shah's grandson, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who has campaigned against Iran's clerically dominated political establishment from his exile in the United States.

Reza Pahlavi tweeted that he was watching the news "closely" and cautioned Iranian leaders against any "cover-up" or "lack of transparency."

The mummified body was found at the former site of Reza Shah's tomb, which was destroyed following Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979 in one of the first in a long line of official and semiofficial actions to distance the country from its royal past.

The head of the Tehran council's cultural heritage and tourism committee, Hassan Khalilabadi, was quoted by government news agency IRNA, conceding that it was "possible" the gauze-wrapped body found at the site belonged to Reza Shah Pahlavi.

"Some believe it is possible that the body belongs to the first Pahlavi that was transferred to Tehran after being mummified and buried in the shrine of Abdol Azim Haasani," he said on April 23.

But the head of the public-relations office of the shrine was quoted by local media as dismissing the reports about the body as "rumors" created on social media.

"The area surrounding the shrine was previously a cemetery, so discovering a body in this area is natural," the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Mostafa Ajorlou as saying.

Khalilabadi said that it would be up to heritage experts and physicians to determine the identity of the body.

He said that regardless of whose remains they were, they have a "heritage aspect" and should be preserved.

The statements have set the rumor mill spinning.

On social media, some people circulated a photo of Reza Shah's body next to the mummified body to claim -- ostensibly based on clues like the position of the hand and the face -- that they could be one and the same.

Many used the hashtags #Rezashah, #Mummy_of_Reza_Shah and #Where_is_the_mummy alongside pleas for the body to be preserved and for authorities to take good care of it.

"#The_Mummmy_of_Reza_Shah is historic heritage and it belongs to all the people and the future [generations]. It should be preserved," Abbas Khansari tweeted, noting in a separate tweet that the remains "can bring many tourists."

Others suggested that the Iranian clerical establishment still fears Reza Shah, who is seen by many as having brought progress and prosperity to the country, and they echoed Reza Pahlavi's suggestion that Iranian officials might attempt to cover up the identity of the mummified body.

"Even his dead body scares the heck out of the Ayatollahs," user Shahriar Ershadi wrote on Twitter.

"You were so mighty and strong that they even fear your mummy," another user tweeted.

Reza Shah, who was forced to abdicate under Allied pressure during World War II, died in South African exile in 1944. His remains were flown back to Iran in 1950 and buried in a mausoleum in Ray, south of Tehran.

Reza Shah's huge tomb was destroyed in 1980 by a crowd that was said to have been led by Sadegh Khalakhali, who had been appointed by the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as the head of the revolutionary courts.

Khalkhali, nicknamed the "hanging judge" for ordering hundreds of summary executions, wrote in memoirs published in 2000 that it took 20 days to destroy the tomb due to its sturdy construction.

"We were forced to use dynamite to gradually destroy the mausoleum," he wrote.

Khalkhali said that revolutionaries were unable to find Reza Shah's remains, claiming that his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, had taken his father's "bones" with him when he left Tehran for Cairo shortly before the revolution.

That claim was later denied by the Shah's wife, Farah Diba, according to RFE/RL's Radio Farda.

Reza Pahlavi's media office also told RFE/RL in an email that the body of Reza Shah was never removed from Iran "as rumored by the regime and its proxies."

"It was left at his mausoleum where he was buried," the email said.

Many Iranians are nostalgic about their pre-revolutionary past, including young Iranians who were born after the 1979 revolution and the creation of the Islamic republic.

During antiestablishment protests that took place in dozens of cities across the country in December and January, some chanted slogans in support of the Pahlavi Dynasty, including: "Reza Shah, may your soul be blessed!" "Reza Shah, apologies, apologies!" and "What a mistake we made by taking part in the revolution."

"I'm not superstitious, but it's interesting for me that the mummy of Reza Shah was found after the 'Reza Shah, may your soul be blessed' chants," a user wrote on Twitter, adding that it was as if Reza Shah had come to watch the fate of the Iranian nation.</s>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The discovery in Iran of a mummified body near the site of a former royal mausoleum has raised speculation it could be the remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, says it’s “possible” the mummy is of Reza Shah. Khalilabadi told the state-run IRNA news agency the body was discovered during construction work at a Shiite shrine in Tehran.

Reza Shah pushed to modernize Iran before being deposed and dying in exile during World War II.

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Iran’s last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the country’s Shiite-dominated theocracy.

His grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, warned Iran on Twitter: “not to hide anything.”</s>The discovery in Iran of a mummified body near the site of a former royal mausoleum has raised speculation it could be the remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council's cultural heritage and tourism committee, says it's "possible" the mummy is of Reza Shah. Khalilabadi told the state-run IRNA news agency the body was discovered during construction work at a Shiite shrine in Tehran.

Reza Shah pushed to modernize Iran before being deposed and dying in exile during World War II.

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Iran's last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the country's Shiite-dominated theocracy.

His grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, warned Iran on Twitter: "not to hide anything."</s>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A mummified body discovered near the site of a former royal mausoleum in Iran may be the remains of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and the father of the country’s last shah.

The recent find of the gauze-wrapped body — and the speculation it triggered — puts new hurdles in the way of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to fully erase the country’s dynastic past, which includes the jack-hammered destruction of the autocrat’s tomb immediately after the 1979 revolution.

Yet, as disaffection and economic problems grow ahead of the Islamic Revolution’s 40th anniversary, mystique around Iran’s age of monarchies persists even with its own history of abuses.

Reza Shah’s grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, already tweeted about it as forensic experts in Iran try to determine whose body they found.

Construction workers discovered the mummified remains while working at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim, whose minarets once rose behind Reza Shah’s own mausoleum. A digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Pictures of the body, as well as construction workers posing with it, quickly ricocheted across social media in Iran.

A spokesman for the shrine dismissed the idea of a mummy being found there. However, Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency on Monday that it’s “possible” the mummy is the body of Reza Shah.

Authorities say they’ll need to conduct DNA tests to confirm whose body it is.

State television has yet to report on the find, likely due to complications that mentioning the Pahlavis can entail.

State media typically refer to the Persian dynasties, including the Pahlavis, as “despotic,” focusing on the abuses of the monarchy’s feared SAVAK intelligence agency and their once-lavish lifestyles.

Reza Shah’s own rise gave birth to modern Iran itself, then still called Persia until he ordered foreign diplomats to cease using the name. He came to power in 1925, ruling as an absolute autocrat who used taxes and the country’s burgeoning oil revenues to rapidly modernize the nation.

His decisions echo today, particularly his 1936 decree banning women from wearing long, flowing black robes known as chadors. He ordered men to wear Western clothes and bring their wives to public functions with their hair uncovered, borrowing from the secularization of Turkey’s first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a contemporary.

The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country. Shiite clerics, angry over his secular beliefs, purges and mass arrests of opponents, held grudges that would foment the coming revolution. Controversies over the chador and hijab persist in Iran today .

Iran’s strong trade ties with Germany, Reza Shah’s push for neutrality amid the coming of World War II and Western fears over its oil supplies falling to the Nazis ultimately sparked a Russian-British invasion of the country in 1941. Reza Shah abdicated in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at the insistence of the occupying British forces.

Reza Shah ended up in South Africa, dying there in 1944. His body was taken to Cairo, mummified and held for years before returning to Iran. A grand mausoleum near Tehran held his body for years, which then-President Richard Nixon visited in 1972.

After 1979, however, Islamists viewed the mausoleum as an affront.

Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, who ordered the executions of hundreds after the revolution, led a mob of supporters who used sledgehammers, jack hammers and other tools to demolish the mausoleum.

Khalkhali later would write in his memoirs that he believed the shah’s family took Reza Shah’s body when they fled the country. The shah’s family, however, maintained the body remained in Iran. His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was buried in Cairo after dying of cancer in 1980.

Today, Iran’s youth remain fascinated by the time before the revolution. Television period pieces have focused on the Pahlavi dynasty, including the recent state TV series “The Enigma of the Shah,” the most expensive series ever produced to air in the country. While incorporating romances or mobsters into the tales, all shows uniformly criticize the royal court.

Reza Shah’s grandson, Reza Pahlavi, has seen his profile rise following the election of President Donald Trump, who appears to hold the future of the Iran nuclear deal in the balance. From exile, the crown prince has agitated for an end to Iran’s theocracy — though gauging national sentiment about restoring the monarchy remains impossible.

Pahlavi took to Twitter on Monday night to tell Iranian officials he is watching what they will do next with the body.

“I warn the responsible authorities not to hide anything,” he wrote.

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellap . His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz .</s>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The discovery in Iran of a mummified body near the site of a former royal mausoleum has raised speculation it could be the remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, says it’s “possible” the mummy is of Reza Shah. Khalilabadi told the state-run IRNA news agency the body was discovered during construction work at a Shiite shrine in Tehran.

Reza Shah pushed to modernize Iran before being deposed and dying in exile during World War II.

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Iran’s last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the country’s Shiite-dominated theocracy.

His grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, warned Iran on Twitter: “not to hide anything.”</s>A mummified body discovered near the site of a former royal mausoleum in Iran may be the remains of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and the father of the country's last shah.

The recent find of the gauze-wrapped body — and the speculation it triggered — puts new hurdles in the way of the Islamic Republic's efforts to fully erase the country's dynastic past, which includes the jack-hammered destruction of the autocrat's tomb immediately after the 1979 revolution.

Yet, as disaffection and economic problems grow ahead of the Islamic Revolution's 40th anniversary, mystique around Iran's age of monarchies persists even with its own history of abuses.

Reza Shah's grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, already tweeted about it as forensic experts in Iran try to determine whose body they found.

Construction workers discovered the mummified remains while working at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim, whose minarets once rose behind Reza Shah's own mausoleum. A digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Pictures of the body, as well as construction workers posing with it, quickly ricocheted across social media in Iran.

A spokesman for the shrine dismissed the idea of a mummy being found there. However, Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council's cultural heritage and tourism committee, was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency on Monday that it's "possible'' the mummy is the body of Reza Shah.

Authorities say they'll need to conduct DNA tests to confirm whose body it is.

State television has yet to report on the find, likely due to complications that mentioning the Pahlavis can entail.

State media typically refer to the Persian dynasties, including the Pahlavis, as "despotic,'' focusing on the abuses of the monarchy's feared SAVAK intelligence agency and their once-lavish lifestyles.

Reza Shah's own rise gave birth to modern Iran itself, then still called Persia until he ordered foreign diplomats to cease using the name. He came to power in 1925, ruling as an absolute autocrat who used taxes and the country's burgeoning oil revenues to rapidly modernize the nation.

His decisions echo today, particularly his 1936 decree banning women from wearing long, flowing black robes known as chadors. He ordered men to wear Western clothes and bring their wives to public functions with their hair uncovered, borrowing from the secularization of Turkey's first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a contemporary.

The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country. Shiite clerics, angry over his secular beliefs, purges and mass arrests of opponents, held grudges that would foment the coming revolution. Controversies over the chador and hijab persist in Iran today .

Iran's strong trade ties with Germany, Reza Shah's push for neutrality amid the coming of World War II and Western fears over its oil supplies falling to the Nazis ultimately sparked a Russian-British invasion of the country in 1941. Reza Shah abdicated in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at the insistence of the occupying British forces.

Reza Shah ended up in South Africa, dying there in 1944. His body was taken to Cairo, mummified and held for years before returning to Iran. A grand mausoleum near Tehran held his body for years, which then-President Richard Nixon visited in 1972.

After 1979, however, Islamists viewed the mausoleum as an affront.

Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, who ordered the executions of hundreds after the revolution, led a mob of supporters who used sledgehammers, jack hammers and other tools to demolish the mausoleum.

Khalkhali later would write in his memoirs that he believed the shah's family took Reza Shah's body when they fled the country. The shah's family, however, maintained the body remained in Iran. His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was buried in Cairo after dying of cancer in 1980.

Today, Iran's youth remain fascinated by the time before the revolution. Television period pieces have focused on the Pahlavi dynasty, including the recent state TV series "The Enigma of the Shah,'' the most expensive series ever produced to air in the country. While incorporating romances or mobsters into the tales, all shows uniformly criticize the royal court.

Reza Shah's grandson, Reza Pahlavi, has seen his profile rise following the election of President Donald Trump, who appears to hold the future of the Iran nuclear deal in the balance. From exile, the crown prince has agitated for an end to Iran's theocracy — though gauging national sentiment about restoring the monarchy remains impossible.

Pahlavi took to Twitter on Monday night to tell Iranian officials he is watching what they will do next with the body.

"I warn the responsible authorities not to hide anything,'' he wrote.</s>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The discovery in Iran of a mummified body near the site of a former royal mausoleum has raised speculation it could be the remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, says it’s “possible” the mummy is of Reza Shah. Khalilabadi told the state-run IRNA news agency the body was discovered during construction work at a Shiite shrine in Tehran.

Reza Shah pushed to modernize Iran before being deposed and dying in exile during World War II.

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Iran’s last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the country’s Shiite-dominated theocracy.

His grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, warned Iran on Twitter: “not to hide anything.”
Reza Pahlavi, former crown prince and son of Iran's last Shah, asked authorities for access to the body of Reza Shah, through trusted doctors and scientific experts. He also added his grandfather must ultimately be buried again in Iran, in a manner that respects the wishes of their family and the Iranian people.