Esfahan

The Friday Mosque

Thursday 27th August

We got a 7:30am bus to Esfahan (just) and it was seriously the most luxurious bus we've seen so far! They only fit about 15 seats on a full sized bus cos they were so spaced out. And we got a snack box :)

We got into Esfahan around lunch time. We were picked up from the bus by our personal tour guide who took us straight out to see the sights. First stop was the famous Friday Mosque which was really amazing. The handmade mosaics were made with tiles cut into patterns and each colour and section was a separate piece; then on the opposite side of the wall the tiles were hand painted with the pattern because they ran out of time.

Inside the Mosque, in my Iranian garb- the mosaics in this pic were painted tiles.

Also inside the massive mosque, thats our tour guide who's head has popped into the picture grrr....
Check out the scale! Nick and I took turns listening while the other would take photos :)

The Friday mosque is apart of this great big complex (Naghsh-e Jahan Square) which has several mosques, Madrassas (Muslim school), palaces, the bazaar and also our stunning hotel (which was a Caravansarai- a travelers Inn). In the middle is a beautiful big reflecting pool.

The old bazaar, this is the start of over 2km of bazaar that runs all the way to the new town centre.
The view of the Friday mosque from the Palace.
The Palace with its huge wooden columns...
The music room.

We saw all this (including a fabulous music room in the Palace) before we moved onto the Palace of the 40 columns (Chehel Sotoon), so called because it actually has 20 columns and they are reflected in yet another reflecting pool which makes 40! Inside the Palace was where Queen Elizabeth II stayed when she visited Iran. Back then there were no 5 star hotels so they just put a bed in the old Palace! The 40 columns Palace also had beautiful murals painted on the walls of important Iranian Shahs winning and losing battles throughout history.
40 columns Palace- Where Queeny stayed.

After this we headed to check out our hotel, a fully restored Caravansarai built over 300 years ago to fund the local Madrassa’s. The hotel is really stunning and we had dinner in the open air courtyard, enjoying the view around us.
the spread at the Abassi
The Foyer
The courtyard
The restaurant area.

Friday 28th August

We had an early start so we hit breakfast early (in yet another beautiful part of the hotel) and I wondered around the hotel taking some more photos. Our tour guide was there by 9 so we checked out of our favourite hotel in the world and headed out to see more of Esfahan.

The Reflecting pool in the Hotel Abassi

First stop was the shaking minaret. Its this mosque where if you shake one Minaret the one on the opposite side starts shaking at the exact same time. They are in perfect unison which is weird, logically if one was making the other shake it should be a second behind the other but they shake at the same time which makes it an impressive mystery. Our tour guide was allowed to shake the minaret which he was pretty stoked about.

Hanging on the Si-o-seh Pol (33 Arches) Bridge in my hijab.

Esfahan is also famous for its bridges, unfortunately for us its summer so the river that usually rushes under them was stone dry, not a drop of water! But they were still pretty impressive to see. We saw Khaju Bridge and Si-o-seh Pol Bridge. At both bridges there were local people (mostly older) hanging out all over the place, especially under them (cooler), and local singers hang out and take turns singing for everyone. It was very cool.
We also visited this amazing Armenian Church, Vank Cathedral. The inside was brilliantly frescoed. We weren't allowed to take photos but I took a few sneakies while my tour guide was talking to the guard.
Inside Vank Cathedral. Much more beautiful in real life. They have all these murals depicting famous biblical stories.
Next door to the Cathedral is a museum which it dedicated to the genocide of the Armenians allegedly carried out by the Turkish. I know the Turkish deny it but there is some pretty compelling evidence in this museum including written orders etc to kill everyone.... except children too young to remember being separated from their parents.
A billboard for some heroes of the Iran- Iraq War. Attractive bunch.

Last stop was kind of a weird thing, our tour guide took us to a pigeon dung collecting place, it was this big wide tower with straight walls and no holes (except high up) so only pigeons (no snakes or lizards) could get in, then people would collect the dung and use it for stuff (plaster etc.) It was built a really long time ago though and they have them all through the city.

At lunch time we headed to the bus stop to wait for our bus to Shiraz! Farewell Esfahan!