Chehel Sotun

Chehel Sotoun, the "Forty Columns", is a Safavid palace pavilion set in a walled garden in the centre of Isfahan, the city whose old boast was that it was "half the world". The garden was laid out under Shah Abbas I, who placed a small pavilion at its heart, and the building was enlarged and richly decorated under Shah Abbas II; an inscription found under later plaster in the mid-20th century dates the main building to 1057 AH, about 1647. It served for royal receptions and entertainment, and since 2011 it has been one of the nine Persian Gardens inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The name hides a pleasant riddle. The tall entrance porch stands on twenty slender wooden columns, each made from a single plane-tree trunk, and when they are reflected in the long pool in front of the pavilion the twenty become forty. In Persian, forty also simply means "many". The porch ceiling is framed in delicate geometric woodwork, the mirror-work of the recessed hall glitters behind it, and stone lions at the corners of a central basin once spouted water. Part of the mirror-work took the place of earlier paintings after the palace was damaged by fire.

Inside, the great audience hall is one of the finest showcases of Safavid wall painting. Large murals show state receptions and battles: Shah Tahmasp welcoming the exiled Mughal emperor Humayun, Shah Abbas I receiving the Uzbek ruler Vali Muhammad Khan, Shah Abbas II with Nader Muhammad Khan, and the battle against the Uzbeks at Merv in 1510. The French traveller Jean Chardin described them in 1666. Later paintings, including the battle of Chaldiran and Nader Shah's victory at Karnal, were added in the Qajar era, alongside smaller scenes of banquets and lovers in miniature style. The pavilion now works as a museum.

Getting there

Chehel Sotoun is in central Isfahan, linked by Sepah Street to the historic Chahar Bagh boulevard. The nearest airport is Isfahan Shahid Beheshti International Airport (IFN), about 23 km away in a straight line.