Isfahan, Iran
by Neil Middleton
Isfahan nesf-e-Jahan: Isfahan is half the world. I’d had this old saying ringing in my head for months. Ever since I’d first seen pictures of Isfahan’s magnificent mosques of blue and gold, I felt it was one of those places that I just had to go to, a goal in itself with no need for explanation and reasoning. There are many places in Iran that call to the historically minded, or to the curious. Isfahan, being one of the ancient capitals of Iran, has a natural appeal to historians but more than that it hosts one of the most beautiful collections of buildings in the world.
It was early in the morning when I first walked into Nagh-e-Jahan square. It was a national holiday so people from all over the country had flocked to Isfahan. For me this meant the only available space in a hotel was little more than the floor of a converted underground storage room. Thoughts of such cramped accommodation made me happy to now be standing in one of the world’s largest squares. A huge open space, enclosed by covered arcades on each side is home to three of the high points of Persian, and world, architecture, the Imam(Shah) and Shekh Lotfollah mosques and the Ali Qapu palace.
Unlike most urban spaces which can feel crowded and busy, the panels of grass under foot and an open, cloudless, sky above the Nagh-e-Jahan were relaxing. So to begin I simply sat down and took in the glories of Persian architecture that surrounded me. There is of course a reason why so many grand mosques, palaces and markets are clustered in one place. At the end of the sixteenth century Shah Abbas wanted to make this spot the centre of his power base. The Shah moved his capital to Isfahan, roughly in the centre of modern Iran, and began a huge building programme to make the city a worthy capital. The centrepiece of this programme, the Nagh-e-Jahan square, is then a monument to centralised power. But with that power having fortunately faded long ago, what’s left today is a space of remarkable beauty.
Getting up off the grass I walked toward the largest of Nagh-e-Jahan’s monuments, the Imam(Shah) mosque. Every inch of the sizeable structure is covered in blue and turquoise tiles, a speciality of Persian architecture. The mosque’s massive but intricately detailed gateway interrupts the plain brickwork of the surrounding arcades. The central arch alone climbs up to 27m with the two flanking minarets continuing further to reach 42m. Inscriptions in white Arabic script against a deep blue background frame central entrance. The rest of the space is filled with floral and geometric patterns in a mix of lighter colours. The level of detail is such that no corner, edge, or spot is left unadorned. This level of detail continues inside with over 400,000 painted tiles covering the arcades, halls and gateways of this extensive mosque complex. If the mosques of Nagh-e-Jahan square are the crowning glories of the Shah’s building programme then the domes are certainly the glittering jewels.
The architects of the Safavid period (AD1501-1736) covered both the interior and the exterior of their domes in coloured tiles with colourful and impressive results. The Imam mosque is topped by an unblemished turquoise dome which fades paler and paler as the sun hits it. On the inside, yellow and cream floral patterns grow in circles against the blue background until this mass of individual details culminates in one central point at the top of the dome. Starring up into this pattern I could start to see that this wasn’t all about making something simply beautiful, these thousands of tiles were arranged to make a point. That the decorating pattern flows up, or flows down, from one central point was not just an aesthetic choice, it symbolises the climb up to heaven. The decoration of the mosque, like all art, is there to help people think of things beyond themselves.
More remarkable still was the next building I walked into after exiting the Imam mosque. Again I entered through a brightly pattern gateway with a large dome sitting low just behind it. This time the exterior of the dome was based on yellow rather than blue. Since the Shekh Lotfollah mosque was built to be the private mosque of the Shahs, whereas the Imam mosque was for the public, the decoration is even more elaborate and rich. Unusually this building stands alone without minarets and the treasures within would have been unknown to all but a select few for centuries. Now, thankfully, commoners such as myself and the dozens of holidaying Iranians around me are freely allowed to walk the corridors of the Shah’s private jewel.
Perhaps not surprisingly there was more of a preference here for yellows and golds which are lit up by the sunlight flowing in through a series of windows. It says a lot that scholarly opinion suggests the Shekh Lotfollah is on a higher artistic level than even the Imam mosque. More effort and expense were put into this building and, while it is the smaller of the two, it is more embellished than its popular neighbour. The religious ideas motivating the decorations are again visible as I look up at the roof of the prayer hall. Circular patterns ascend in ordered rows to culminate at the top of the dome to inspire the visitor to contemplate the one centre.
These two buildings are certainly not lone diamonds, Isfahan probably has one of the best collections of architecture from the 16th-17th centuries anywhere in the world. Straight across from the Shekh Lotfollah mosque is the Ali Qapu palace. Also constructed on the orders of Shah Abbas, its large balcony hangs over one side of Nagh-e-Jahan square. Eighteen slender wooden columns hold up the finely painted balcony roof and from here I naturally got the best view of the city. Back down on the ground, Isfahan’s other major palace, the Chehel Sotoun, has a similar painted wooden pavilion set amidst a park. Both palaces are highly decorated inside with the walls of the Chehel Sotoun bearing a number of large frescos depicting the shahs and the court.
The building programme of Shah Abbas also left a significant legacy spanning the river Zayendah. Numerous monumental bridges cross the wide stretch of water at Isfahan, some with foundations going back over a thousand years, but the longest is the Si-o-seh pol. During the day it is a long flat place to stroll along and combinations well with the grassy banks of the river to become an ideal place to rest in the afternoon. Covered niches line the sides of the bridge giving people dozens of semi-hidden spots to sit quietly looking out over the river. With evening the promenading crowds increase as do the numbers of river birds that flock over head.
It takes a good few days to wonder around the city looking for the various mosques, cathedrals, bridges and palaces that bring people to Isfahan. When many of these buildings were fresh and new in the 17th century it was believed that Isfahan was one of the world’s most beautiful cities. That claim still holds true centuries later.
If You Go:
Procedures to get a visa to visit Iran change from time to time so check with an embassy in your country first. A pre-approval number is often needed which can be arranged through a number of travel agencies. The process takes time but, depending on circumstances, can be easy enough.
Neil Middleton is an occasional writer and archaeologist with an eye on history. He has traveled to a number of places around Europe, the Middle East and Asia and has lived in a variety of European countries.
All photos by Neil Middleton:
Nagh-e-Jahan square
Imam(Shah) mosque
Outside of Shekh Lotfollah mosque
Dome of Imam mosque
Central dome of Imam mosque
Inside Shekh Lotfollah mosque
Hebron is the final resting place of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their respective wives Sarah, Rebekah and Leah. Abraham purchased the Cave of Machpelah for use as a family tomb from Ephron the Hittite for 400 silver Shekels (Genesis 23:17). This cave is the second holiest site in Judaism.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs is the centre of ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Jews. The site is maintained under tight security and segregated into both a mosque and a synagogue.
Proceed past the minbar and then turn right to walk down the aisle between Isaac’s cenotaph and the wall. Before you enter the next room, look down to your right and find a decorative grate set upon a white marble slab shaped like a flower blossom. This grate covers a shaft leading down to the Cave of the Patriarchs below. A candle burns under the grate but nothing from the interior of the cave is visible. No one has entered this cave since the time of the Crusades.
Exiting the prayer hall, locate Abraham’s cenotaph (Genesis 23:1-20) on your right. This is the most elaborately decorated monument in the complex. The cloth covering the cenotaph is divided into hexagonal sections, each with a gold embroidered flower blossom at its centre. Abraham’s monument is set within an opening in the wall that separates the mosque from the synagogue next door so that both Muslims and Jews can view it and yet remain segregated from each other.
En route to Jericho, you pass by An Nabi Musa, a former caravanserai where Muslim travelers could rest for the night as they traveled to Mecca for the Hajj. The caravanserai houses a mosque dating to 1269 CE which was built by the Mamluk Sultan Baybers. Inside the mosque you find a second room containing a cenotaph covered in a silky green cloth embroidered with gold Arabic script. Muslims believe that this is the final resting place of Moses whose bones were removed from Mount Nebo in neighbouring Jordan by Saladin. Jews and Christians believe that Moses still rests on Mount Nebo to this day (Deuteronomy 34: 5-6).
After a few minutes we continued on to Tell es-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho. Just thinking about this city conjures up images of Israelites marching, the sound of trumpets and walls falling down (Joshua 6:1-21). What you find is a 15 metre high mound (“Tell” in Arabic) of earth covering approximately 2.5 hectares. Archeologists have sliced trenches deep into this mound and uncovered 23 successive settlements built atop each other. The oldest layer dates back to 8000 BCE. A number of signs highlight the structures found within each trench.
The slope of one of the “Tell” layers dating to the Middle Bronze Age (1650-1550 BCE) was fortified by an earthen embankment with a mud brick wall at its summit. A large retaining wall at the base of the embankment was constructed from Cyclopean stones. This Cyclopean wall also supported a second mud brick wall at a height of 8 meters. This second mud brick wall, believed to have been about 70 centimeters thick, was uncovered in a collapsed state, possibly having been leveled by an earthquake. The nearby Jordan Valley is known to have a fault line running through it and earthquakes have been recorded at various times in history.
After the late Bronze Age, the importance of the Tell site as a city declined significantly. Five centuries before Jesus, a new site for the city had already been established approximately 1.6 km southeast of the present-day mound.
Exiting the archeological site, walk a short distance to the cable car and ride it up to the Monastery of Temptation set on the side of a nearby mountain. Administered by the Greek Orthodox Church, this monastery is situated on the traditional site where Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness while being tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13 and Mark 1:12-13).
Inside the monastery, you pass down a long hallway that is open to the sky. This hallway runs along the sheer rock face where several caves have been hollowed out. The outer wall is a row of doors that open into rooms that have been cantilevered from the cliff.
After descending by cable car, your next destination is Hisham’s Palace which was built by Caliph Hisham Bin Abdul Malik (724-743 CE) but never completed. The construction site was later leveled by an earthquake in 749 CE. Several layers of limestone blocks define all that remains of a once two-story building that served as a winter palace. The rooms of the palace were set around an inner portico and each corner of the structure had a cylindrical tower. A large hexagonal limestone star, cut from a single block of limestone, is believed to be all that remains of an upper window from this palace.
Just north of the palace you find the remains of a bath complex. The reception room features a beautiful mosaic on the floor depicting the “Tree of Life”. Three gazelles graze at the bottom of the fruit tree and a lion is ready to pounce on one of them. The bathing rooms, set along the northern wall of the bath house, were heated by hypocausts.
Jesus settled in the ancient fishing village of Capernaum after having left Nazareth (Matthew 1:13, 9:1, Mark 2:1). Entering this archeological site today, you are greeted by a statue of St. Peter set just inside the “not-so-pearly” gates. Looking around, you may be surprised that the site before you is from the Byzantine Period and that nothing remains from the time of Jesus.
The octagonal shaped Catholic Church is beautiful in its own right. The brightly lit room features eight wooden carvings depicting the life of Jesus lining the periphery. Your eyes are drawn to the altar with the panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee behind it. From here, it is easy to imagine fishermen in their boats casting their nets into the lake.
Constructed in 1933 on a rocky base at the shore of the Sea of Galilee by the Franciscans, this modest grey stone chapel is not the first church constructed on site. You can still see the remains of walls from an earlier church built in the 4th century CE on three sides of the building.
The focal point of this church is the brown limestone outcrop that seemingly serves as a barrier between the congregation and the altar. According to tradition Jesus laid out a meal of bread and fish for his disciples upon this rock known as the Mensa Christi. You can easily imagine a number of tired fishermen coming ashore after a long night in their boat and finding a warm meal waiting for them, prepared by a man who had risen from the dead.
The focal point of this church with its basic interior is the dark brown limestone rock located beneath the simple stone altar. The faithful believe that this 0.6 square meter (5.4 square foot) stone was used by Jesus as a table when performing the miracle. History records that pilgrims have chipped away pieces of this stone over time.
The Catholic Church on site, built in 1937, is set on the traditional site of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:20-22, Matthew 5:1-5). While there is no proof that the sermon actually occurred here, pilgrims have been drawn to this site since the 4th century CE, as evidenced by the ruins of a small church just down the hill from the present house of worship.
It takes about an hour by car to cross the 70 kilometers of straight desert road to get to Takht-e-Jamshid, Persepolis. A little way outside the site are the rock-cut tombs of Naksh-e-Rustam. High up on a flat rock face the idealised figures of several Achaemenid kings glare out from a set of royal tombs. Cut so high that they were only accessible with ropes, I have to crane my neck and strain my eyes to make out the images of several Persian kings, the builders of Persepolis. Below the tombs the later Sassanian dynasty also left a vivid reminder. In this image the Iranian king Shapur I, sits tall astride his war-horse whilst in front a Roman emperor bends a knee and begs the king for mercy. All these thousands of years later the tombs and images still retain their main purpose of demonstrating the power of the Persian kings.
Over two thousand years ago people trekked into the Southern Iranian desert bearing tribute to the mighty Persian Empire whose king sat enthroned in the courtyards and spacious halls of Persepolis. This gave the grand city its reputation as the most hated in the world and ultimately caused its fiery destruction by Alexander the Great. It never recovered from this destruction and the hollowed out shade of the city was left abandoned to the desert for centuries.
Once in the site, I came first to the impressive Gate of All Nations. The name referring to the subjects of the empire who would have had to pass through here. Above me loomed two huge human headed winged lions, their eroded bodies incised with the vertical and horizontal lines of three different languages which proclaim Xerxes I as their builder. The grand courtyard these beasts guard having long since vanished their intimidating bulk at least offers some protective shade. A little further on a finely carved capital of two bull’s heads lays flat on the ground. Unlike much else here they look fresh, pristine, as if just carved out of gleaming marble. It’s difficult to imagine that their huge weight could once have been hauled up to top a slender column.
One of the finest surviving elements of the site is the grand staircase which led to the Apadana Palace. The sides of the stairs contain some of the best surviving sculpture. It was here that the subject peoples would have to come bearing tribute. At the bottom of the staircase a lion grapples fiercely with a fleeing bull. This common piece of Persian iconography is still striking today. Climbing the staircase I was accompanied by the subject peoples. Greeks, Egyptians, Scythians, Afghans and a myriad others all processing up the steps to the palace at the top. The steps are cut deliberately shallow so you have to slow your pace and walk carefully before entering the presence of the King.
The fighting animals, strong soldiers and exotic subjects which lined the walls and the sheer opulence of the place must have made entering Persepolis an intimidating experience. Many from beyond Persia would only have come to Persepolis under compulsion. It is not surprising then that it was such a feared and hated place, the object of vengeful dreams for many people, despite its beauty. Once Alexander the Great defeated Persia and captured the city he had it burnt to the ground before leaving. As the architectural symbol of the Persian Empire, Alexander reckoned he could not leave it standing. The fire would have quickly rose and engulfed the wooden beams of the roof and brought them crashing down. Traces of this fiery end can still be seen across the site which was never rebuilt.
Rani our tour guide opened a door and ushered us out onto the grounds of Nazareth Village, a reconstruction of Jesus’ old neighbourhood. As he did so, I suddenly remembered that Rod Serling began every episode of the Twilight Zone with “you unlock this door with the key of imagination”. We knew that we had arrived in the past when we were almost bowled over by an oncoming shepherd and his five sheep. With very little effort he ushered his flock into a circular pen constructed of standing sticks. My second thought was to watch where I stepped, just in case.
A short distance away, seated outside the doorway of her stone house, a middle-aged woman sits and spins wool by means of a hand spindle. As some of the tour group found out, it is a great deal more difficult than it looks. Our guide outlines the steps required to process and dye the wool with natural colours from pomegranate and onion skin before it is woven into a garment.
he young Jesus would have also attended school. In those days, the local synagogue served as the community school. We entered the house of worship to find three tiers of benches lining the greyish-white walls; a wooden bench at the centre of the room held the Torah Scroll. This synagogue and all other building were reconstructed by referencing the best New Testament and archaeological sources available.
Present day Nazareth is a bustling city of approximately 70,000 people, a far cry from the 400 or so people living here at the time of Jesus. Work your way north along traffic-clogged Paulus VI Street and be thankful that you are not driving. Your first destination is St. Gabriel’s Church, the most distant site.
Retracing your steps along Paulus VI Street, turn right onto Casa Nova Street and arrive at the Roman Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation – the largest church in the Middle East. This church was built over the Grotto of the Annunciation, an ancient cave dwelling, traditionally accepted as being Mary’s home when she was visited by the Angel Gabriel. I could find no scriptural reference suggesting Mary lived in such a structure however.
Above the grotto structure you find a large octagonal opening in the ceiling providing you with a view of the upper church. The dark brown cupola of the upper church roof is also visible, extending to a dizzying height of 60 meters. The ribs of the cupola represent the petals of an upside-down lily, symbolic of Mary’s purity. To visit the upper church, ascend the staircase just inside the doorway of the lower church.
Christian tradition dating to the 7th century CE has it that Joseph’s house and carpenter shop were located on the site of the present Church of St. Joseph. Inside, the bare stone crypt features several rock-hewn chambers, a cistern and several silos for storing grain. A mosaic floor dates from Byzantine times. The nearby side chapel marks the spot where Joseph was visited by an angel as he slept (Matthew 1:20).
The Mount of the Precipice, 297 meters high, is now a park. From a lookout at the summit, you have a panoramic view of the surrounding area including distant Mount Tabor – the traditional site of the Transfiguration. But that journey will have to wait for another day. Instead you may wish to enjoy a leisurely stroll along the gravel path at the cliff’s edge and contemplate the meaning of your daytrip. As you take in the scenery, the essence of Jesus seems closer even though almost 2000 years have passed since he resided in his hometown of Nazareth.
