Photos

Esfahan, chosen and designed capital under Shah Abbas I, was reconstituted with so many new mosques, palaces, bridges, avenues and parks that even European travelers wrote rapturously of its beauties. Chardin, a dependable observer according to Arthur Upham Pope, reports that in 1666 Esfahan had 162 mosques, 48 madrasas (schools), 182 caravansaries and 173 baths. The great maydan (square) at Esfahan, scene of maneuvers, processions, games, and especially polo, is surrounded by two-storied arcades which focus on the recessed portal of the Masjid-e Imam (Imam mosque, formerly called the Shah Mosque).