Half the World: An Evening in Isfahan
They say Isfahan is half the world. Stand in its great square at dusk and you'll believe it.
The Shah Mosque's tiled portal, Isfahan.
Leila Hosseini
Iran Correspondent
- Naqsh-e Jahan at sunset
- The vaulted grand bazaar
- Singers under Si-o-se-pol bridge
Isfahan nesf-e jahan — Isfahan is half the world. The phrase is four hundred years old and still not an exaggeration.
The largest square you've never heard of
Naqsh-e Jahan is one of the biggest public squares on the planet, and in the evening the whole city pours into it. The great blue dome of the Shah Mosque turns from turquoise to cobalt to indigo as the sun goes.
The Persians built in tile what other cultures only dreamed in stone — whole skies of blue, set into the desert.
From the square, the grand bazaar runs for kilometres under brick vaults. Half the world. At dusk, in that square, you stop arguing with the phrase.
Isfahan, Iran
Leila writes about the deserts, bazaars and poetry of the Iranian plateau, tracing the old caravan routes from Yazd to the Caspian.
