Naqsh-e Jahan Square

Naqsh-e Jahan, “image of the world”, is the square Shah Abbas I built when he made Isfahan his capital in 1598. It is a long rectangle, roughly 560 metres by 160, enclosed by a continuous two-storey arcade of shops. It was laid out as a stage: for polo, parades, markets and executions, watched from the palace on its western side. Stone goalposts from the polo matches still stand at either end.

Four buildings break the arcade, one on each side. To the south is the Shah Mosque, begun in 1611 and now called the Imam Mosque, its portal turned at an angle so that the prayer hall faces Mecca. To the east is the smaller Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, which has no minarets and a dome of cream and rose tiles. To the west rises the Ali Qapu palace, whose name means “lofty gate”, with a timber-columned talar, an open veranda, from which the shah watched the square. To the north the Qeysariyeh gate leads into the bazaar.

Today the square is a public park with fountains and lawns, and families picnic on the grass in the evenings. The arcades still sell copperwork, miniatures and printed cloth. It was among the first Iranian sites inscribed by UNESCO, in 1979.