Ali Qapu

The Golden Age of Isfahan arrived in the 16th century under Shah Abbas the great .(1587–1629), who conquered it and made it the new capital of the Safavid dynasty. During the reign of Shah Abbas I, who unified Persia, Isfahan reached its pinnacle. Isfahan had parks, libraries and mosques that amazed Europeans.
Ali Qapu is located on the western side of the Naghshe Jahan Square opposite toSheikh Lotfolah mosque , and had been originally designed as a vast portal. It is forty-eight meters high and there are seven floors, each accessible by a difficult spiral staircase. In the sixth floor music room, deep circular niches are found in the walls, having not only aesthetic value, but also acoustic.

Masouleh Village - Iran

Masouleh architecture is unique. The buildings have been built into the mountain and are interconnected. Courtyards and roofs both serve as pedestrian areas similar to streets. Masouleh does not allow any motor vehicles to enter, due to its unique layout. It is the only village in Iran with such a prohibition. However, the small streets and many stairs simply wouldn't make it possible for vehicles to enter.

Eram Garden, Shiraz - Iran

Eram Garden (New Persian:Bagh-e Eram) is a historic Persian garden in Shiraz, Iran. Eram is the Persianized version of the Arabic word "Eram" meaning heaven in the Muslim's book of Koran. Eram Garden therefore is so called for its beauties and aesthetic attractions resembling "heaven." This garden is located on the northern shore of the Kushk river in the Fars province. Both pavilion and the garden are built during the middle of nineteenth cenutry by the Ilkhanate or a paramount chief of the Qashqai tribes of Pars.

Masuleh Village north of Iran

Masuleh is a breathtakingly beautiful village where streets are built on top of the roofs of the houses below.
Of course, it is impossible to enter Masuleh with a car. Maybe this is the reason why the original atmosphere of the villages has survived.

pigeon tower of Nahjir Village in Isfahan

An abandoned tower shows a typically honeycombed interior that could house 5000 to 7000 pigeons. To the birds, the towers offered refuge from nocturnal predators. A17th-century traveler estimated there were more than 3000 pigeon towers near Isfahan, and today some 250 to 300 survive in various states of decay.

Nahjir Village in Isfahan - Iran

Nahjir is like a living architectural and anthropological museum with beautiful landscap and beautiful castil .It is located on the south-western slope of Isfahan. It is 2000 meters above sea level and 2 kms away from Mobarake.

Nahjir Village - Isfahan .Iran

this sketch in this set are taken on 15th Mar2009 and I'm going to have another visit overthere in December which it should be quite cold over there.
So let's have look around this wonderful village with beautiful ancient Valey , road and castil.

Ferdosi

Hakim Abol Ghasem Ferdosi Tosi , more commonly translisterated as Ferdowsi or Firdusi is a highly revered Persian poet. He was the author of the Shahnameh , the national epic of Iran and related societies.Ferdowsi, is best known for his literary epic, Shahnameh to which he devoted most of his life. Shahnameh was originally drafted by Ferdowsi for the Princes of Samanids, who were responsible for revival of the Persian cultural traditions after the Arab invasion.

Ferdowsi would live to see the Samanids, conquered by the Ghaznavid Turks। The new ruler Mahmud of Ghaznavi would lack the same interest in Ferdosi 's work as that shown by the Samanids, resulting in him losing favor with the royal court. Ferdosi would die in 1020 C.E. in "poverty and embittered by royal neglect" though confident that the masterpiece that he had created would last the test of time.Written at the end of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh century C.E., Shahnameh would mainly concern pre-Islamic Iran, through its fictional protagonist, Rostam a Persian hero and legend who is a greater-than-life figure (akin to Hercules) living for more than five hundred years, undergoing seven trials of strength, Batteling foes of man, beast, and dragon, and serving more than five Persian monarchies. Ferdosi 's Rostam is an epitome of bravery, heroism, and loyalty to the Persian throne.

Rostam however is more than just a legend and a hero, in that he is constantly on the edge, and always resolute to assert that he is "his own man" able to define his own destiny and make his own choices, regardless of needs of others even those of the kings he so faithfully serves.Ferdosi lived at a critical historical period and so his book not only reflects the uncertainties and challenges of the era but his own resilience and determination in creation of a stable Persian literary identity that was unique and different from its Arab counterpart. Ferdosi in fact was a "dehqan" or a member of the indigenous landed aristocracy who had in a severely attenuated way survived the Arab conquest and now had to adapt to the new world order. Shahnameh in many ways reflects this ongoing challenge.

The Brief Story of Bijan and Manijeh

it is the begining of the story 's Bijan & Manijeh and it does n 't have any scenario in this first page so it just discribes the darkness of the night when the story begins.

when people from Arman complained to Key Khosro that wild boars were invading their fields, Bijan volunteered to go and combat the boars. Bijan pursued the wild boars, returning them to their lairs, without any of the boars escaping. The day following this event, Gorgin told Bijan about the garden of Afrasiab on the other side of the border with Turan. Thus was the young Bijan tempted hid him, and no one except her maids were aware of this secret. When Afrasiab learned that his daughter was hiding a man in her house, he sent guards to seize Bijan. Bijan was captured and imprisoned in a pit in the desert and the pit was blocked with a heavy stone. Manijeh was also punished by her father. She was expelled from the palace and sent to the desert where Bijan was prisoned. Manijeh made a tunnel to Bijan's prison, and through that tunnel spoke to him and fed him. Every day she would go to the city and beg for food and bring the food to Bijan. Eventually, Key Khosro sent Rostam to rescue Bijan. Rostam went to Turan as a merchant, and met Manijeh in the city, from where she took him to the pit where Bijan was imprisoned.

characters portrait

Bizhan and Manijeh is a love story in Ferdosi 's Shahnameh. Bijan was the son of Giv, a great warrior of Iran during the reign of Key Khosrow and Banu Goshasp, the heroine daughter of Rostam. Bijan fell in love with Manijeh, the daughter of Afrasiab, the king of Turan and greatest enemy of Iran, and greatly suffered as a result.