Iran - Andrew Burke [189]
To fully appreciate this mosque you must go into the fine interior rooms. The Room of Sultan Uljeitu (a 14th-century Shiite convert) is home to one of the mosque’s greatest treasures – an exquisite stucco mihrab awash with dense Quranic inscriptions and floral designs. Next door is the Timurid-era Winter Hall (Beit al-Sheta), built in 1448 and lit by alabaster skylights – ask the caretaker to turn off the neon (or do it yourself) to see the full effect.
The room beneath the grand Nezam al-Molk Dome and the Seljuk-era hypostyle prayer halls either side just breathe history, while at the other end of the complex the Taj al-Molk Dome is widely considered to be the finest brick dome ever built. While relatively small, it is said to be mathematically perfect, and has survived dozens of earthquakes with nary a blemish for more than 900 years. To reach it you walk through a forest of imposing pillars. These domes are among the oldest parts of the mosque.
The ticket office is at the main entrance and once you’ve paid admission the gatekeeper will summon an English-speaking guide to show you around.
Bazar-e Bozorg
Esfahan’s Bazar-e Bozorg (Great Bazaar; Map; approximately 9am-8pm Sat-Thu) links Imam Sq with the Jameh Mosque, 1.7km northeast. The bazaar’s arched passageways are topped by a series of small domes, each with an aperture at its apex spilling shafts of light onto the commerce below. While the oldest parts of the bazaar, around the Jameh Mosque, are more than a thousand years old, most of what you see today was built during Shah Abbas’ aggressive expansions in the early 1600s.
The bazaar is a maze of lanes, madrasehs, caravanserais and timcheh, arcaded centres of a single trade (eg carpet). It can be entered at dozens of points, but the main entrance is via the Qeysarieh Portal (Map) at the northern end of Imam Sq. The high gateway is decorated with tiles and, higher up, frescoes by the great Reza Abbasi depicting Shah Abbas’ war with the Uzbeks. These paintings have deteriorated over the centuries and a slow restoration is continuing.
Industries tend to congregate in certain areas of the bazaar. Among the more prominent are the carpet sellers, off to the west. Trade is busiest in the mornings. Undoubtedly the best way to discover the bazaar is to just wander; if you get lost, ask anyone for ‘Naqsh-e Jahan’ or the ‘Masjed-e Jameh’.
IMAM SQUARE (NAQSH-E JAHAN SQUARE) )
When French poet Renier described Esfahan as ‘half of the world’ in the 16th century, it was the myriad wonders of the square called Naqsh-e Jahan that inspired him. The description wouldn’t be out of place today, because while it is now officially called Imam Square (Map) few people use that name and it remains home to arguably the most majestic collection of buildings in the Islamic world.
Naqsh-e Jahan means ‘pattern of the world’, and it’s a world that owes much to the vision of Shah Abbas the Great. Begun in 1602 as the centrepiece of Abbas’ new capital, the square was designed as home to the finest jewels of the Safavid empire – the incomparable Imam Mosque, the supremely elegant Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and the indulgent and lavishly decorated Ali Qapu Palace and Qeysarieh Portal. At 512m long and 163m wide, this immense space is the second-largest square on earth – only Mao Zedong’s severe Tiananmen Sq in Beijing is bigger.
The square has changed little since it was built. The upper level of arched arcades surrounding the square is empty these days, though long-talked-about plans to restore it for use as a museum of Esfahan’s history are still being discussed. The open space has been reconstituted several times, most recently by the Pahlavis, who added the fountains. At either end of the square, you can still see the goal posts used in regular polo games 400 years ago. You’ll see these polo matches depicted on miniatures for sale around the square.
The square is best visited in the late afternoon and early