Fin Garden

Bagh-e Fin, the Fin Garden, lies just outside Kashan where the land begins to rise towards the Karkas mountains. Bagh is Persian for garden. Its layout dates from the Safavid period, under Shah Abbas I, and it was enlarged by the Qajar ruler Fath-Ali Shah in the early nineteenth century. It is one of the gardens grouped together as the Persian Garden on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2011.

Everything here depends on water from the Soleymanieh spring nearby. It enters the garden and runs through narrow channels lined with turquoise tiles, falling slightly from pool to pool so that gravity alone drives the small fountains set along the beds. The plan follows the chahar bagh, the four-part garden divided by water channels, with tall cypresses shading the walks and a pavilion at the crossing.

The garden also holds a darker memory. In 1852 Amir Kabir, the reforming chief minister of Naser al-Din Shah, was killed in the garden's bathhouse after falling from favour. Visitors can walk through the bath, where a modest display marks the event. Then, back outside, the sound of running water takes over again, and it is easy to see why this garden has served for centuries as a picture of what a Persian garden should be.