Esfahan, half the world !
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Esfahan, half the world ! |
A ceiling decorated with colourful tiles in the stunning Emam Mosque, Esfahan.
| Esfahan, "half the world" ! |
| We arrived in Esfahan after a
beautiful drive from the Persian Gulf to be welcomed in the home of
Ghazal, the University student we had met in Yazd. Esfahan is the most
visited city in Iran and we were excited to be in this city full of
character and beautiful buildings. For the first time during this trip, we
had decided not to limit our time in this city. We eventually spent a week
in Esfahan !
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| Ali Qapu |
| Ali Qapu is a palace located
on the famous Emam Khomeini Square that is also home to the Emam Mosque.
Emam Khomeini Square is one of the largest squares in the world (500 m by
160 m). We were stunned by this building as its high wooden pillars made
us feel we had been transported into antiquity. Pillars on old historical
buildings are usually made of stone or marble. The bath in the middle of
this platform overlooking the square is covered with heavy looking lead
plates and was fed with water through a complex system of viaducts coming
from the mountains.
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| Within the 11th century
palace is one of the most extraordinarily decorated rooms we have ever
seen. The ceilings and the walls of the rooms that use to house the family
of the ruling Shah dynasty are painted and sculpted. The motives are those
of musical instruments and common household artifacts of the times.
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Emam Khomeini Square was not always called like this as it was built in 1612. It is a imposing example of town planning.
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| Emam Mosque |
| This mosque is said to be the
one you have to visit last in Iran. All the mosques you see after this
will look pale in comparison. It's completely covered, inside and out with
bright blue tiles. Standing under the 54 m high dome and looking up to the
ceiling was amazing. But it wasn't the most beautiful mosque we saw in
Esfahan !
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| Jame Mosque |
| Jame Mosque is the most
beautiful mosque we saw in Esfahan ! Again tourists are charged 25,000
rials to enter this building (in Esfahan Iranians also have to pay to
enter mosques but 10 times less) so we decided one of us would enter the
building and look around to see whether it was worth the price. Very
kindly the man at the entrance laid Kathleen in for free and even took his
set of keys to open the doors of several hidden prayer rooms and to show
us around. This mosque is a museum of Islamic architecture as it displays
styles from the 11th to the 18th century. Here we made the most of the
fact that we had time and spent several hours wandering around and taking
up the atmosphere.
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The underground looking prayer hall with white sheets separating men from women (left), a small piece of furniture containing mohrs, in this case small round pieces of clay put on the floor and against which the worshipper will place his forehead when kneeling down (centre).
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Stunning brickwork under a mosque dome, Esfahan.
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| In Esfahan we also managed to
buy a couple of news magazines only to find that also these are censured
by Iranian authorities. Black tape was spread a several pages that
contained "unsuitable" pictures ! Fortunately, it was not too
hard for us too peel of and to discover what lied behind it !
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A censored copy of Time magazine : before and after ! Not much to write home about but a little too much for Iranian eyes ?
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For the many Iranians wanting to leave the country, this bill on the wall means getting away to an Eldora do and the several millions of Iranians living in the North America (L.A. & Vancouver).
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| We stayed with Ghazal's
family for 2 nights all together. Strangely and unexpectedly, the
discussion at lunchtime after the 1st night turned to the standard of
living in Belgium and how it might be possible for us to sponsor their
move. After having tried to explain as honestly as possible it would be
very difficult for them to seek a better life in our home country and we
could not help in any way, things went sour. We would no longer go to a
concert that evening, Ghazal could no longer stay with her family in
Esfahan but had to return to University and we could no longer stay with
them as their grandmother was ill. We had the very sad feeling their
hospitality was calculated. It was agreed we would leave them by 10 am
next morning ! Bang !
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"Guardate la luna !". The moon coming up behind the walls of the old caravanserai as locals and foreigners alike sip tea and smoke their water pipes.
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| It was not such a bad thing
after all as we decided to try our luck and our sponsorship file at the
best hotel in town : the Abbasi Hotel. Not only were we successful, but we
also felt like this was a small revenge on our bad luck as this was the
place we should have stayed with Kathleen's parents ! The following day we
were asked to attend a conference on tourism the hotel was hosting and
shook hands with the Iranian Minister of Tourism. Unfortunately we were
not asked to speak or we would have managed to explain how discriminated
we felt about different entrance prices for Iranians and foreigners. All
Iranians are not poor and all tourists are not rich ! We spent a lot of
the next 3 days in our room watching BBC World as this was exactly when
the US and British started their attacks against the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan.
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Two friends chatting under one of the many beautiful bridges of the Esfahan.
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Despite the pictures you see on TV, we are doing well !
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| The ancient city of Persepolis | Back to Trip page | The Abbasi Hotel |
