Naqsh-e Jahan Square

Interesting facts

Stone polo goalposts from the Safavid era still stand at the north and south ends of the square.

The square's splendour fed the Persian saying 'Isfahan is half the world'.

Known as Shah Square before the 1979 revolution, it was then officially renamed Imam Square.

It was inscribed by UNESCO in 1979, among the very first World Heritage Sites in Iran.

In Safavid times a water channel ran along all four sides of the square, bordered by stone walkways.

Shopkeepers paid water carriers to hand out free drinking water to people crossing the square.

Shah Abbas brought about 300 Chinese craftsmen to Isfahan to work in the royal workshops and teach porcelain making.

The Grand Bazaar behind the northern gate runs for about two kilometres, and parts of it date back to the Seljuk era.

The square is pictured on the reverse of Iran's 20,000-rial banknote.

Why it is worth it

Naqsh-e Jahan Square — "Image of the World" — is the great public room of Isfahan, a rectangle roughly 560 metres long and 160 metres wide laid out between 1598 and 1629 when Shah Abbas I moved the Safavid capital here. It was the centrepiece of a complete remaking of the city, planned under the scholar Shaykh Bahai, and it is still enclosed by an unbroken two-storey arcade of shops, so that the four great buildings set into its sides appear as jewels in a single frame.

Each side holds something different. To the south stands the Shah Mosque, the vast Friday mosque with the largest dome in the city; its entrance faces the square, but the building behind it swings round at an angle to face Mecca, a turn you make almost without noticing as you pass through the portal. On the east side is the smaller Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, the first of the four to be built and intended as the royal court's private mosque. Opposite it rises the Ali Qapu, the palace gateway from whose high terrace the shahs watched polo, parades and horse races on the square below; its top floor, the "music room", is lined with stucco cut into the shapes of cups and vessels. To the north the Qeysarie gate opens into the long vaulted Grand Bazaar.

The square was built to be lived in. Merchants rented stalls by the week, entertainers and puppeteers took over at dusk, and it could be cleared for Nowruz celebrations or for polo. The Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle, who saw it in 1617, rated it above anything in Constantinople or Christian Europe. Tea-houses by the bazaar entrance still continue a tradition that began with coffee under Shah Abbas.

Today the square is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and still the city's main gathering place; Friday prayers are held in the Shah Mosque, and the shops under the arcades are still let out. Allow a full day: the mosques, the palace, the bazaar and the square itself each deserve time.

Getting there

The square lies in the centre of Isfahan. Isfahan Shahid Beheshti International Airport (IFN) is about 22 km away.

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia

The Naqsh-e Jahan Square, also known as the Shah Square prior to 1979, and sometimes known as the Imam Square, is a square situated at the center of Isfahan, Iran. Constructed between 1598 and 1629, it is now an important historical site, and one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. It is 160 metres (520 ft) wide by 560 metres (1,840 ft) long – an area of 89,600 square metres (964,000 sq ft). The square is surrounded by buildings from the Safavid era. The Shah Mosque is situated on the south side of this square. On the west side is the Ali Qapu Palace. Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque is situated on the eastern side of this square and at the northern side Qeysarie Gate opens into the Isfahan Grand Bazaar. Today, Namaaz-e Jom'eh is held in the Shah Mosque.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia