March 30

We headed for Tehran this morning, with a stop at Abyaneh. This village has been inhabited for at least 5000 years. The people who live here dress in traditional clothes for all the tourists (of which there were many).

There were oasis-type places where traders could stop over.

Beautiful, but unusual cone-shaped mosque

Door in Abyaneh

Village of Abyaneh

Canal water source in Abyaneh

Village of Abyaneh nestled into the hillside

Mosque in Abyaneh

Shahid, Cathy, me, and Megan with women in traditional dress.

They sold various dried fruits and green almonds (rather bitter with only a slight almond flavor and best with salt). From there we went to Karshan were we visited another mosque that is also an active religious school

The mosque

Looking down into the religious school area courtyard. We were not allowed below.

Again, the symmetry and the blue, blue sky.

and a mansion from the 1850s that had belonged to a local carpet merchant. It was beautiful and incorporated courtyard gardens, as all architecture from years ago seemed to do here.

Entrance to the historic house in Kashan

Main courtyard in the mansion

Rooms open out to the courtyard

Down to the basement

Our guide Ali (left) and Glenn looking up from a courtyard

Talk about vaulted ceiling!

Mirrors make it seem like stars inside

Vast courtyard in a giant mansion

Another courtyard inside the mansion. I think I remember this is the “servants’ courtyard.”

Yet another courtyard!!

Stained glass!

Still another courtyard

Following that we visited the historic Fin Gardens.

Fin Garden

Inside one of the structures of Fin Garden

Such color, beauty, and attention to detail!

Fin Garden

Coins and bills at the bottom of the pond with all the fish.

Fin Garden

Wall surrounding Fin Garden

Tehran was a surprise to see as it is surrounded by snow-covered mountains. The tallest peak is about 5,000 meters (almost 16,500 ft.).

Sunset as we are nearing Tehran.

Walking around Esfahan

 

March 29

We walked to Naqsh-e-Jahan Square, which is reputed to be the largest square in Iran. It has two mosques and a palace to visit around it. One mosque was the private mosque of the royal family when it was built 400 years ago.

Entrance to the mosque of the royal family from the square.

I just love this blue tile on the mosques.

It was really beautiful, and the attention to details such as having the light hit the ceiling in such a way as to look like the peacock at the center of the dome was opening its tail.

Though it is difficult to make out the bird image in the center of the dome, you can see the light creating the tail fan and the design all around is meant to resemble the peacock tail feathers.

The other mosque was in honor of Imam Khomeini and was also beautiful.

This is the entrance to the Imam Khomeini mosque.

Not only do I love the blue color, I love the symmetry.

Courtyard inside the mosque entrance.

Most of the big mosques here have a winter side and a summer side with a courtyard in the middle. I can’t remember if this is summer or winter side.

They were working on rebuilding the outer dome, and we were able to see the process underway inside.

They were repairing the outside dome tiles. These are small sections that will be put on the large wedge.

He is hand shaping the edges so they fit exactly.

This is the huge wedge that will then be fitted onto the outside of the dome.

The palace is touted to be the first multi-story building in Iran.

The palace directly across the square from the mosque.

Wooden ceiling decoration at the palace.

Looking at the Imam Khomeini mosque from the palace terrace. The scaffolding is where the section will go up.

Mosque of the royal family across the square from the palace terrace.

The multiple stories as seen from the back of the palace.

It has 7 floors. We were not able to go to the top floor because it was Nowruz and too crowded.

Since the bazaar here surrounds the square, we browsed through and found multitudes of shops. We bought enameled copper dishes

My enamelled copper plate. It is about 6 inches in diameter. The photo makes it look much darker than it is.

and calico. This calico is printed on cotton by hand with wooden stamps. A large piece can have thousands of stamps. It is then steamed and treated to set the ink, so all the pieces can be washed.

[Sorry for the blurry photo.] The design is printed with these wooden blocks and then color is added in the same way. They call this calico.

This huge round piece has been printed thousands of times.

Then we went to the reception palace of the Shah dating back to the 17^th century. The gardens surrounding it were so peaceful and beautiful, even with the crowds of people.

Walking through the gardens toward the royal reception palace.

Everywhere we went people were picnicking.

Part of the Reception Palace

What has been nice is that there are gardens and green growing things everywhere.

This was a partially underground roundabout and even here there were growing things.