Isfahan

Isfahan, known as “Nesf e Jahan”, meaning “Half of the world”, is Iran’s third largest city and numberone tourist destination, with an impressive history and outstanding architecture. Isfahan has been ruled by fourteen different empires and once used to be one of the worlds largest cities.

Naqshe Jahan

The city covered with beautiful hand painted and magnificent public square.

The first place that visitors head to in Isfahan is the Naqsh e Jahan square. It is located very close to the centre of the city and it is home to the Aali Qapu Palace as well as the very famous Shah Mosque and Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque.

Naqsh e Jahan, meaning “Image of the World”, is also knows as Meidan Emam is regarded as one of the masterpieces of Persian architecture and an excellent example of Islamic era architecture of Iran. Naqsh e Jahan is one of the largest city squares in the world and become one of UNESCO's World Heritage Site.

The square is surrounded by buildings from the Safavid era. On of those buildings is the Shah Mosque, that is built on the south side of this square.

Shah Mosque

The mosque is built with tiny pieces of coloured ceramic tiles, each one cut to shape and then pieced together like a puzzle. From a distance the colour and details stands out, but up close these designs become even more impressive, you can fully see the Miniature paintings on each ceramic tiles.

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque is on the eastern side of this square.

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque

The mosque was also built during Shah Abbas time under the Safavid era. This mosque like any other mosque is decorated with some of the best mosaics. It is estimated that it took around twenty years to build it. The tiles of the dome change color, from cream to pink, depending on the light conditions, the mosque is unusual because it has no minaret or courtyard.

On the west side of square you can find Aali Qapu Palace.

Aali Qapu Palace

The palace is about thirty eight meters high, and once used to be the tallest building of the seventeenth century.

There are fifty two rooms, but because of a long restoration, most of the rooms are closed to visitors.

The other place that is very investing to visit in Isfahan is Monar Jonban's historical monument from fourteenth century.

Monar Jonban was constructed over a tomb to cover the grave of a man from Mogul era.

The interesting thing about it is that if one of the minarets that is built on the roof can shake, the other minaret used to shake as well, but during the pahalvi era the europeans scientist came to Iran to figure out the mysterious reason of it shaking, but after that for some reason one of minarets stoped shaking. up to this day still no one knows why they shake and why one of them stop shaking. To shake the minaret, you can go inside of it and try to shake it by pushing on the wall, and then you can see the shaking.

This is a short video on youtube, that shows the shaking of the minaret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-9sKhA-a8c

And video of the city of Isfahan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9FVrJS4MzU