Esfahan Nesf e Jahaan
Roughly translated as ‘Esfahan is half of the world’, is what the 16th French poet Renier said on visiting Esfahan. For me too, Esfahan *was* the jewel in the Iranian crown. I consider myself to be a very ‘positive’ traveller in that there have been very few places that I did not like (apart from Bangkok, which I visited, and Dubai, which I’m yet to visit). Even though I may not like a city at first glance, I ultimately end up liking it. As Paolo Coelho put it so eloquently, “A city is like a capricious woman: she takes time to be seduced and to reveal herself completely.”
But Esfahan was love at first sight. I am unable to pinpoint what I liked about it. Was it the immaculately neat and clean streets? Was it the beguiling mix of East and West? Was it the fact that there were beautiful women all round? Any which way, I just loved the city. Period. Very rarely do I experience a city and tell myself, “I can live here.” Esfahan turned out to be one of those.
Right next to our hotel (which was not bad in itself) was the Abbasi hotel, the best in Esfahan. I’ve been told that the rooms are nothing great but the best part of the hotel was its courtyard. It was a large garden, complete with streams, bridges, flowers and the smell of cinnamon and roses. I went there on all the three evenings we were there for some tea and (beautiful) people-watching. Ahem!
The most interesting part about Esfahan (sometimes spelt as Isfahan) is that it is a lovely mix of the traditional and the modern. There is the traditional side to the city – with the Jameh Mosque, the Imam Square, and the Borgh e Bazaar. And the modern part of the city, Jolfa quarter, with its tree lined boulevards and hip cafes, could compete with any ‘modern’ city in the world. Just that Esfahan beats others to the post with all the beautiful women!
The centre of old-town Esfahan is the ridiculously-huge Imam Square (or Naksh e Jahaan, pattern of the world), one of the largest squares in the world (if you really want to know, 512m by 163m). The Safavid King Shah Abbas ordered the building of this square in the early 17th century. This square has a number of important sights of Esfahan – the Imam Mosque, the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and the Ali Qapu Palace. These blue-tiled buildings, coupled with lovely lawns and beautiful fountains, gave the square impressionable colours of green and blue. The square, now merely ornamental, has served many different purposes in the past - as a polo ground, as a resting place for silk road caravans, and as a market. Now, instead of heavily robed traders, one mainly sees well-heeled locals and camera-toting tourists. The latter notwithstanding, the square is an imposing piece of architecture and is definitely one of the wonders of the world.
At one end of the square is the Borgh e bazaar, which basically turned out to be endless. We were there during the afternoon when the shopkeepers were catching shut eye after the flow of the forenoon and the ebb of the evening. Needless to say,far better than Istanbul’s touristy Grand Bazaar. Again!
Another impressive structure is the Safavid-era Chahel Satun (’40 pillars’) palace that has beautiful frescoes including some with an India connection – one shows a reception for Humayun in Zanjan in 1550 when he had taken refuge in Iran, another depicts the battle of Karnal (1756).
The river Zayandeh flows through Esfahan and there are a number of intricate and beautiful bridges on the river – Si O Se Bridge (bridge of 33 arches), Chubi Bridge, and Khaju Bridge. The latter was apparently built during the reign of Shah Abbas II in 1665. There is a lovely tea house at the base of this bridge. Just walking along the river from one bridge to the other, or on the bridges, as the Esfahanis do, is a really pleasurable experience and you could be mistaken for believing that you are in a European city (except that the women here are far more beautiful!).
On the other side of the river is the Jolfa, or the Armenian quarter. Historically there have been close ties between Armenians and Iranians and in the early 17th C Shah Abbas relocated thousands of Armenians from Nakhichevan to this quarter in Esfahan. This is one of the hippest quarters I’ve seen anywhere in the world. In the evenings, young well-heeled Esfahanis go up and down in this quarter to see and to be seen. I went there quite a few times, and this one time I got chatting with this group of very well-informed and articulate girls. Of course, when the conversation veered towards poetry I had to put my hands up.
Apart from the beautiful women, the Jolfa quarter also has a beautiful cathedral – The Vank. This cathedral, built between 1606 and 1655, has beautiful frescoes of various Christian motifs alongside Islamic tiles. There are a number of other churches in this area but I, unfortunately, did not have the time to visit them.
Further away from the centre of town is the Manar Jomban or shaking minarets. This wee tomb has two minarets, the architectural speciality of which are that if you shake one the other starts shaking. On the hour, the caretaker climbs up the tomb and gives a demonstration much to the amusement of those waiting below.
We rounded up our stay in Esfahan with a visit to an ancient (now non-functional) fire temple atop a steep hill (which needed some huffing and puffing to get upto!).
To end where I begun, I have no idea who Renier (the French poet) is.
