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Esfahan, Iran
In 2017, Editor-in-Chief Andrew Selkirk visited Esfahan in Iran, one of the hidden secrets of world architecture — a magnificent palace and town built by the Abbas the Great in the years after AD 1610. Esfahan is little known in the West, but it has some of the world’s great architecture – not only mosques, but also its palaces, its gardens, and last but not least, its fine bridges.
In the year 1611, Abbas the Great, ruler of Iran, set out to turn his city of Esfahan into the finest city in the world. He began by laying out a great rectangular square three times the size of St Mark’s Square in Venice and today only exceeded in size by the architecturally inferior Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Originally it was a polo ground. To the left is the Royal Palace from which the Emperor could watch the game in progress. To the right is the great Mosque of Sheikh Lotfollah designed as a private mosque for the Royal family; and behind the camera is the Royal Mosque, one of the world’s great architectural masterpieces.
The Great Square, Esfahan. Originally it was a polo grou
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