In techniques for iterative saliency map estimation, a salient regions module applies a saliency estimation technique to compute a saliency map of an image that includes image regions. A salient image region of the image is determined from the saliency map, and an image region that corresponds to the salient image region is removed from the image. The salient regions module then iteratively determines subsequent salient image regions of the image utilizing the saliency estimation technique to recompute the saliency map of the image with the image region removed, and removes the image regions that correspond to the subsequent salient image regions from the image. The salient image regions of the image are iteratively determined until no salient image regions are detected in the image, and a salient features map is generated that includes each of the salient image regions determined iteratively and combined to generate the final saliency map.