Zephyrous Travels: Iran Day 5 : Isfahan (5 Mar 11) - Half of the World : Visiting the Ali Qapu Palace and the Imam Mosque in Isfahan Square

We started the day slightly later then the previous days. After breakfast, we headed for the Imam Square to visit the 3 monuments there. I would consider this as the second climax of my Persian trip, I have read so much about the Imam Square and its constructs. Afterall there is a saying in Iran that goes "If you have visited Isfahan, you have been to half of the world". Our first stop is Ali Qapu Palace. The interesting thing about this palace is it is designed to confuse onlookers. From different side of the palace, one would see the palace having differing number of floors. This is done on purpose to so as not to let non-dwellers know how many floors there are in this palace. We climbed to the Balacony level of this palace. From here I can see the whole of Imam Square and the 2 mosques that stand at the edge of the square. We were told this level is where the royalties used to which polo from and also to host foreign dignitaries that would come into Persia and visit the kings back then. We climbed to the top most level of this palace, which is the 6th level. The unique feature of this chamber has to be the musical instrument hollow ceilings. The purpose of the hollow is to allow music, that would be played from this level to flow down 1 level down, so those at the lower level can hear and enjoy the music. Back in those days, males and females are housed in different levels of the palace when it comes to entertainment. The males will stay on the 6th level where the music would be played, while the females will stay 1 level below. As I was climbing these stairs up the palace, it made me wonder if the builders purposely built this palace in such a way to "torture" their king back then.

Entrance of the Ali Qapu Palace. Some restoration work is being done when we visited the palace

This is the main entrance to the palace. The arched ceiling allows one to whisper to another when standing at two separate corners of this hallway

Main entrance of Ali Qapu Palace

Ali Qapu Palace

Ceiling of the view deck of Ali Qapu Palace

Looking out from the viewing deck of Ali Qapu Palace. This was where the king addresses his subjects or to watch Polo game

View of Lady Mosque from the viewing deck of Ali Qapu Palace

Side entrance leading to top floors at the viewing deck

View of the back alley of Ali Qapu Palace

This is the "dance floor" of the palace. In ancient days, males and females are separated in royal parties. This is the floor for the ladies and the holes on the wall allows music to travel from the top floor where the band is to this floor

Close up of the "music holes"

Very intriguing design of the dance floor in Ali Qapu Palace

Ceiling of the top floor in Ali Qapu Palace

Persian design being embedded into the walls of this palace

This portrait is taken at the viewing deck depicting a Persian Lady

Ceiling of the viewing deck

Pillars at the viewing deck

View of Imam Mosque from the viewing deck

Exiting the Palace, we headed for the Imam Mosque next. This is the bigger of the 2 mosques in Imam Square and it was used as the main mosque in Isfahan. From afar our guide pointed a structure that is not traditional in Islamic Mosque structure. We were told back in those days, to promote religious harmony between the Muslims and the Christians, they exchanged some building structures. We were told that we will be seeing a dome in a church later in the day. As we entered the Mosque, the size of the courtyard alone is huge! At the courtyard, there are 3 buildings. The one on the right side is the one with Christianity structure subsequently built on. We went to that building, inside was rather large and there is a garden behind it. We then proceeded to the centre building. This is the largest of the 3 building. Our guide told us to pick a spot and stay there. He then took out a note and started to flip it. From where I am I could hear the note. We were then told that this mosque is designed in such a way that the sound will transmit from the centre of this building to any part within the mosque. I had seen this when I was taking picture at the courtyard, nearer to the entrance into the courtyard, a handful of young Iranian girls were standing at the centre of the middle building and they were singing. I could hear them from afar, it was amazing. We then went to the left building, which was equally big as the right building. We spent more time taking picture in the courtyard then at the side buildings. We were told that the shear size of this mosque is built so that different branches of Islamism do their prayers at the same time without interfering with each other. Such a design clearly has religion harmony in mind.

Main entrance to Imam Mosque

The ceiling design on the main entrance of the mosque

The ceiling of inside the main gate building

Colourful blue pattern design

The main prayer hall of Imam Mosque

Exquisite Persian Design on the ceiling

So much detail in the design of the mosque

The colour blue ceiling inside the main prayer hall of Imam Mosque

A huge prayer hall

Just love the Persian design on the ceiling and all over the mosque

The amount of detail that went into the walls and ceiling tells one how much the Persians love their mosque

The huge prayer hall inside Imam Mosque

The amount of detail that went into the interior of the mosque is unimaginable

Inside the Imam Mosque

The exterior of the prayer hall of Imam Mosque

Imam Mosque covers a huge area

Me in Imam Mosque

The main prayer hall of Imam Mosque. Notice the small building on top of the hall which does not have a dome

Me in Imam Mosque

Huge area the Imam Mosque covers

Inside the Imam Mosque

Exiting the Imam Mosque, we went to the smaller mosque in Imam Square. This mosque was used for religious studies more then a mosque. It was loosely referred to as the "Lady's Mosque" as it is the smallest mosque in this square and was used by the women for prayers. This mosque does not have any minarets nor any courtyard. Once we entered the mosque, a corridor was there to usher us into the main hall. This mosque is rather uneventful, perhaps the only thing worth mentioning is the basement, which was used for prayers.

The ceiling of the main hall in the Lady's Mosque

Inside the Lady's Mosque

The underground prayer room in Lady's Mosque

Hallway that leads into the main hall

Next stop for us was the Chehel Sotun Palace or the 40 pillars Palace. This palace originally has only 2 pillars, the other 18 was added to this palace by a later king. The palace got its name as 40 pillar palace as the reflection from the pool in front of the palace gave it extra 20 pillars. The palace is built as a leisure and a place to entertain guests, thus it is rather small in size. As we entered this rather small palace, I can see paintings of kings entertaining guests on the walls of the throne hall. These paintings are rather colourful at in good condition. The most important part of this palace does not lie with these paintings, rather a very old copy of the Quran in the centre of the throne room. The other room has other displays such as an wooden door, nothing quite interesting here though.

The 40 pillars of Chehel Sotun Palace

Main entrance of Chehel Sotun Palace

The open area of Chehel Sotun Palace

Entering the Chehel Sotun Palace

The mural paintings inside the Chehel Sotun Palace depict some battle scenes here

Colourfully designed ceiling

Some of the murals inside Chehel Sotun Palace

A very old Qu'ran

After the palace, we went on to the Hasht Behest Palace. This simple 2 storey palace is in the middle of a garden. This garden was out of bounds to commoners as it is a royal garden, where the royalties come for relaxation. The garden is like any other garden we have seen so far, nothing worth mentioning. We headed into the Palace, it looked rather old. Other then that, there is nothing worth mentioning or even seeing here. Felt like a waste of time. After the Hast Behest Palace visit, we headed for lunch. As we entered the restaurant, an elderly man told us not to take pictures in the restaurant. What a waste! The Persian decor of the restaurant is really nice. I ordered the traditional Isfahani food - Biryani, which is minced meat in the centre of 2 pieces of naan. I took pictures of the food anyways.

Hasht Behest Palace

Typical Persian Designed Ceiling

Looking out into the garden from Hasht Behest Palace can be very therapeutic

The Hasht Behest Palace is a very simple palace

Inside Hasht Behest Palace

Exterior of Hasht Behest Palace

Birayani for lunch

After lunch, we headed for the Si-o-Seh Bridge. This bridge is also known as the 33 arches bridge. This bridge was once the only bridge connecting the 2 parts of Isfahan. Here I saw a lot of Isfahanis hanging out. Other then the architecture of the bridge being unique, there is nothing eventful here. Serves more like a photographic point for travelers in Isfahan, other then used by the locals to cross between the 2 parts of Isfahan. We crossed the bridge to the other side and headed for a rather unique church. The Vank Cathedral is an Armenian Church, which has a dome at the top of the cathedral. Our guide pointed out that this is a symbol of friendship and religious harmony, as what we had seen earlier on at Imam mosque. It is a pity that we are not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral as there are rather vivid paintings of the gods, jesus and hell. We exited the cathedral and went next door to the museum. Here showcased numerous christian artifacts as well as the culling of the Armenians. However the centrepiece of the museum gotta be this Armenian bible verse written on a single strain of hair, which is about 0.1mm wide. This hair was placed under a microscope and through the scope the verse is clearly seen.

Walking on the Si-O-Seh Bridge

Si-O-Seh Bridge from far

Si-O-Seh Bridge

The Vank Cathedral

The Vank Cathedral has a dome that is commonly found on mosques

After the church, our guide left us to wonder around the Iman Square as he has some stuff to "settle". We took the cab to Imam square and bought some souvenirs. As we were walking, we had a lot of "hellos" and "welcomes" coming our way. We stayed at the square till about evening time, when we headed back to the Si-o-Seh Bridge to take some picture at dusk. The view of the bridge was rather artistic at dusk when the bridge glimmers with the soft orange light. After taking some pictures, we headed back to Imam Square to take more pictures of the Square at night. The square at night has some mystic-ness to it, it is absolutely beautiful. I felt rather worn out after a whole day of walking, time to grab some rest at the hotel, as we have quite abit of ground to cover the next day.