Si-o-se Pol

Si-o-se Pol means “thirty-three bridges”, a name taken from the thirty-three arches that carry it across the Zayandeh river in Isfahan. It was built for Shah Abbas I around the turn of the seventeenth century by his general Allahverdi Khan, a Georgian convert who rose to command the Safavid armies, and it is also known by his name. At roughly 300 metres it is the longest of the city's historic bridges.

The bridge links the city centre to the southern bank and the long avenue of Chahar Bagh, which ran down to it as a royal promenade. It has two levels: a broad roadway above, now for pedestrians only, flanked by arcaded walkways, and a lower level of passages and piers at the water's edge where people could sit almost on the river.

In recent decades the Zayandeh has often run dry for long periods, its water diverted upstream, and visitors may find the arches standing over sand and stones rather than a current. When the water is released the city comes down to the river at once. Even in dry seasons the lower arcades are a meeting place, where people sit in the evening shade and the arches frame one another in a long receding row.