A MONUMENTAL CAPITAL IN-DEPTH
- The most beautiful city in the Middle East.
- Suitable as an introduction to the whole region or for past visitors to acquire in-depth knowledge.
With astoundingly beautiful buildings, abundant green open spaces and gardens and a riverside setting, Isfahan is the loveliest city in the Middle East. Moreover, it is a gentle, manageable place where visitors are welcomed. Whether wandering in a group or individually there is no hassle, only courteous salutations and, sometimes, polite if eager questioning.
This tour would be an excellent introduction to the Middle East for those who have not travelled there before. Equally it should appeal to those who have been to Iran but who would like the opportunity to linger in one place and develop familiarity with this wonderful city, unrushed and with time for independent exploration.
Situated at the heart of Persia, Isfahan was always an important city and has buildings from most of the main periods of Islamic architecture. The Friday Mosque is perhaps the greatest monument of the Seljuk rulers of the eleventh century, and was magnificently augmented by the Mongol Ilkhanid dynasty at the turn of the thirteenth.
But it was under the Safavids that the city became a world-class metropolis. It was the Safavids of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who welded the disparate peoples and customs of the Persian Empire into a culturally homogenous unit instilled with a common notion of Iranian nationhood, and who turned the country into a bastion of Shi’ism, thus laying the foundations of the modern state of Iran. Safavid Persia was outward looking, had many contacts with the west and and the capital was truly cosmopolitan.
Shah Abbas (ruled 1587–1629) chose Isfahan as the capital, instigated its enlargement with the creation of a new town laid it out on a monumental scale and sponsored several of its finest buildings. Its infrastructure included pools and fountains, the maidan, largest piazza in the world, broad processional avenues and bridges over the Zayandeh Rud which combine utilitarian functions with pleasure-seeking ones. The Imam Mosque, Lutfallah Mosque and the later interdependent complex of madrasa, khan and bazaar built by Shah Sultan Husain are the finest public buildings of the time.
Five nights are spent in Isfahan while nights are spent in Tehran at either end, a necessary transit stop before a fascinating drive to the principal destination and after a flight on the way back.