Half the world

"Esfahan Nesf-e Jahan." Esfahan is half the world. This is what the french poet Renier wrote after he had visited the city in the 16th century. I don't have such beautiful words to describe the city, so I'll show you some details instead.

As I wrote before, the main square's old name translates into pattern of the world. These are some of the patterns that caught my eye.

These patterns come from the Sheikh Lotfollah mosque. The first picture shows the decoration on the outside of the dome. Like silver-coloured ivy, protecting the blue flowers and sand-coloured bricks. The second shows the prints on the inside. I love the way the sunlight creates a ripple effect on the surface. As if the walls are covered by a layer of water that is uneffected by gravity and waves around the copula.

Besides the water pattern, there was also this pattern of drops. Due to the illumination angle, this pattern forms part of the 'peacock tail' that is formed by the triangular shape that starts at an opening at the apex of the dome and disperses to the side.












This pattern of sunlight appeared when I visited the Imam mosque, at the southern tip of the square.

This mythical creature is depicted on the main entrance of the basaar. On the picture it looks as if the archer is about to shoot an arrow into the mouth of a dragon, but that's not the case. In 'reality' the head of the dragon is the tip of his tail.

This pattern I saw in the vitrine of one of the souvenir shops. It's part of a decorative plate. Beautiful script, written in a beautiful way. It's easy to imagine why this region has known so many great poets.

This pattern I saw in the Jameh mosque. I like the square style that's used. The same goes for the second picture, which shows part of a column. If you look at it like this it looks a bit like a labyrinth.

Another fine example of the meticulous ways of the constructors of the time. Parts of this mosque date back to 8th century if I'm not mistaken.

And then there are the patterns of the beautiful bridges. When I cycled around on Friday (weekend) there was a lot of life on and around these bridges. (For instance the BMX-ers I showed earlier.)

At night they are illuminated, which gives a spectacular effect. I took some pictures that were focussed, but when I looked at my pictures afterwards, I liked this one the most. It's heavily out of focus, but the elementary image that remains says it all. You have the yellow lit up arches of the bridge, the blue pollution of a commercial (3 blue dots that fade out) and the moon, that looked bigger than normal that night.

This shop keeper has delicious cakes, but before he could sell me some, he first had to catch this dove. His first attempt made the bird lose some of his tail feathers. The second attempt was successful, which the man obviously liked.

This picture I actually took in Kashan, so it doesn't belong in this entry. But as there are no rules for this blog, and all footage finally dissolves in one long list, I add it here. It's an image that reminded me of a short poem that my friend Mehdi told me when I visited him in Tehran. It goes like this:

The night sang its song,

Now it's time for the window.

I don't know if it's part of a longer poem, or if this is it, but I like the meaning that he attached to it a lot. It has to do with hope.