The Maidan was where the
shah and the people met. During the day, much of the square was occupied by the tents and stalls of tradesmen, who paid a weekly rental to the government. There were also entertainers and actors. For the hungry, there were readily available cooked foods or slices of melon, while cups of water were handed out for free by water-carriers paid for by the shop-keepers. At the entrance to the Imperial Bazaar, there were coffee-houses, where people could relax over a cup of fresh coffee and a water-pipe. These shops can still be found today, although the drink in fashion for the past century has been tea, rather than coffee. At dusk, the shop-keepers packed up, and the huzz and buzz of tradesmen and eager shoppers bargaining over the prices of goods would be given over to
dervishes, mummers, jugglers, puppet-players, acrobats and prostitutes. Every now and then the square would be cleared off for public ceremonies and festivities. One such occasion would be the annual event of
Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Also, the national Persian sport of
polo could be played in the maidan, providing the Shah, residing in the Ali Qapu palace, and the busy shoppers with some entertainment. , 2009 had a secret entrance that spanned underneath the Maidan, from the Palace on the opposite side of the square, 2003
Masjed-e Shah – The Pinnacle of Safavid Architecture The Crown Jewel in the Naqsh-e Jahan Square was the
Masjed-e Shah, which would replace the much older
Jameh Mosque in conducting the Friday prayers. To achieve this, the Shah Mosque was constructed not only with vision of grandeur, having the largest dome in the city, but Shaykh Bahai also planned the construction of a religious school and a winter-mosque clamped at either side of it.
The Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque Of the four monuments that dominated the perimeter of the Naqsh-e Jahan square, the
Lotfollah Mosque, opposite the palace, was the first to be built. The purpose of this mosque was for it to be a private mosque of the royal court, unlike the Masjed-e Shah, which was meant for the public.
Ali Qapu Palace at night, 2019
Ālī Qāpū (
IPA: ɑliː qɑpuː) is a
pavilion that marks the entrance to the vast royal residential quarter of Safavid Isfahan which stretched from the Maidan Naqsh-e Jahan to the Chahar Bagh Boulevard. The name is made of two elements: "Ali", Arabic for exalted, and "Qapu", Turkic for portal or royal threshold, resulting in the translation "Exalted Porte". On the sixth floor, the royal reception and banquets were held. The largest rooms are found on this floor. The stucco decoration of the banquet hall abounds in motif of various vessels and cups. The sixth floor was popularly called the music room as it was here that various ensembles performed music and sang songs. From the upper galleries, the Safavid shahs watched polo games, maneuvers and horse-racing below in the Naqsh-e Jahan square. shop at bazar, 2012
The Imperial Bazaar The
Grand Bazaar of Isfahan is a historic market and one of the oldest and largest
bazaars in the
Middle East. Although the present structure dates back to the Safavid era, parts of it are more than a thousand years old, dating back to the
Seljuk era. It is a vaulted, two kilometer street linking the old city with the new. ==UNESCO==