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Published: March 8th 2017
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MARCH 8, 2017 ESFAHAN
Well, so far the Hotel Abassi is a disappointment. The room, though large, is furnished like a monk’s cell. There is a king size bed, one chair and a thin table. And, they must have taken a bit of advice from our younger son David, and furnished only one bedside stand. The room is ,of course, hot, but opening the windows allows it to cool down. Of course the room faces the main street where trucks and autos run all time day and night. Fortunately we brought our Marsona sound machine with us (NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT!) The pillows are made of concrete. Fortunately I always carry my German pillow with me but poor Dennis had to sleep on a little highly decorated throw pillow. But the best was yet to come. We went downstairs to breakfast at a beautifully ornate room overlooking the first floor and were greeted by the masses. There was not a seat to be found in this large room teaming with people. We finally found two seats with two Italian ladies. When I asked them were they from Italy they had blank expressions on their faces. When I repeated “Italia”?
they said SI, Italia. That was the end of the breakfast conversation. I hope the rest of the day goes better.
We set out this morning for the Cheheisotoon Palace. This was a 16th century palace. There were 40 wooden columns in the from that when reflected in the pool were 80. At the forecourt, assemblies were held. The ceiling in this area was beautiful and mirrored. A left turn took you to a meeting hall where the walls were tightly painted with scenes from the times. It is interesting that they portrayed dancing and drinking alcoholic beverages, both of which were prohibited by Islam.While we were there a whole group of kindergarten children came in all dressed in costumes of the period. We were quite enthralled by them as they were with us. There was a beautiful park surrounding the palace with a very old fallen tree trunk which supposedly was about 2000 years old and was actually petrified. We walked to see that and had our pictures taken sitting inside of the trunk.
We then drove to see the Pol-e-Khaju bridge. This is a beautiful structure extending 110 meters across the dry river bed but by
King Abbas. This bridge is also a dam and has a series of arcades spanning the river bed. The bridge is in two levels.
We then went to the Armenian quarter. There are about 8000 Armenians in Esfahan. There are three Armenians churches. We went to the largest, St. Gregory’s. The church is part of a complex that contains the bell tower, the church, a museum and living quarters for the staff and the clergy. The church is fairly simple from the outside, but on the inside it is beautiful. The walls are painted with stories from the bible. It is really overwhelming in its colors and beauty. We then went to the museum where they had several interesting things like the world’s smallest Bible which was about 0.5cm high. From St. Gregory’s we went to lunch in an Armenian restaurant and had a delicious meal. Chicken(shredded) cooked in pomegranite juice and ground walnuts served over rice.
We then walked to Hasht Behesht Palace from the 16th century. This is not in good repair but there are still parts that speak to its former glory. Some of the ceilings are magnificent. Parts of the wall paintigs are still
intact in places and speak to a very affluent time in Persian history.
After Hasht Behesht we went to the studio of a miniaturist. Miniature paintings are an art form that the Persians perfected. These are paintings that are painstakingly produced using handmade brushes containing one cat hair and one feather from a pigeon. He created a small portrait of Hafiz, a famous Persian poet while we were there. We then walked through his studio and if so desired purchased one of his paintings. Dennis and I got a beautiful portrait of a Balochistan Man. All in all a very good day.
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