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This shot is from the same heritage site.
In 1954, the government of Egypt decided to build the Aswan Dam (Aswan High Dam), an event that would flood a valley containing treasures of ancient Egypt such as the Abu Simbel temples. UNESCO then launched a worldwide safeguarding campaign, despite appeals from the governments of Egypt and Sudan. The Abu Simbel and Philae temples were taken apart, moved to a higher location, and put back together piece by piece.
The cost of the project was US$80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries. The project was regarded as a success, and led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, a draft convention to protect the common cultural heritage of humanity.
Convention and background
The United States initiated the idea of combining cultural conservation with nature conservation. A White House conference in 1965 called for a World Heritage Trust to preserve the world's superb natural and scenic areas and historic sites for the present and the future of the entire world citizenry. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, and they were presented in 1972 to the United Nations conference on Human Environment in Stockholm.
A single text was agreed on by all parties, and the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972.
Nominating process
A country must first take an inventory of its significant cultural and natural properties. This is called the Tentative List, and is important because a country may not nominate properties that have not already been included on the Tentative List. Next, it can select a property from this list to place into a Nomination File. The World Heritage Centre offers advice and help in preparing this file.
At this point, the file is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the World Conservation Union. These bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. The Committee meets once per year to determine whether or not to inscribe each nominated property on the World Heritage List, and sometimes defers the decision to request more information from the states. There are ten selection criteria - a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list.
Selection criteria
Until the end of 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so that there is only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of the ten criteria.
I. to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius";
II. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design";
III. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared";
IV. to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history";
V. to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change";
VI. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria.)
VII. to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance";
VIII. to be outstanding examples representing major stages of Earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features";
IX. to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals";
X. to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-site conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.
Beemster (pronunciation) is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Also, the Beemster is the first so-called polder in the Netherlands that was reclaimed from a lake, the water being extracted out of the lake by windmills. The Beemster Polder was dried during the period 1609 through 1612. It has preserved intact its well-ordered landscape of fields, roads, canals, dykes and settlements, laid out in accordance with classical and Renaissance planning principles. A grid of canals parallels the grid of roads in the Beemster. The grids are offset: the larger feeder canals are offset by approximately one kilometer from the larger roads.
Population centres
The municipality of Beemster consists of the following cities, towns, villages and/or districts: Middenbeemster, Noordbeemster, Westbeemster, Zuidoostbeemster.
History
Around 800 AD the area of the modern municipality of Beemster was covered in peat. The name "Beemster" has been derived from "Bamestra" (see Groenedijk, 2000), the name of a small river in the area. In the period 1150-1250 peat-digging by people, and storm floods, enlarged that small river into an inland sea, a lake in open connection with the Zuiderzee. Around 1605 private investors started to drain the Beemster lake. In 1610, this was almost complete, but the lake re-filled because of a break in the Zuiderzee dikes. It was decided to make the ring-dike a meter high above the surrounding country. In 1612 the polder was dry and the country was divided among the investors. In the earlier days of the polder, farmers occupied its lands for growing the crops necessary for long sea journeys by the VOC to the East Indies. It turned out that the farmland was so good that the project was considered then to be an economic success, in contrast to e.g. the Heerhugowaard. Since 1999 the entire Beemster polder has been on the UNESCO world heritage list.
The Beemster polder is home to the world famous CONO Kaasmakers, maker of the Beemster brand of cheeses. This co-op was formed in 1901 to create cheese made only from the unique milk that comes from the Beemster polder. Today Beemster cheese is sold not only in Europe, but in the USA, Canada, Japan and China.
World Heritage Site
Because of its historical relevance, and because the original structure of the area is still largely intact, the Beemster was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1999. Justification for Inscription is as follows:
Criterion:
1\ The Beemster Polder is a masterpiece of creative planning, in which the ideals of antiquity and the Renaissance were applied to the design of a reclaimed landscape.
2\ The innovative and intellectually imaginative landscape of the Beemster Polder had a profound and lasting impact on reclamation projects in Europe and beyond.
3\ The creation of the Beemster Polder marks a major step forward in the interrelationship between humankind and water at a crucial period of social and economic expansion.
Source: wikipedia.org
Same place, same moon with our little friend the bird
el mismo lugar la misma luna y nuestro pequeno amiguito
This set mixes it up a bit with both a pretty blonde and brunette goddess! You can see them both modeling the Gold 45 Revolver swimsuits as well as a 45SURFER camera bracket mount for shooting stills & video at the same time.
Here's some epic video of the beautiful goddesses:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=txvupr5xOZ4 (modeling swimsuit)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G5w3u6L8x8 (modeling swimsuit)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pYrQbPayZs (modeling the bracket)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGSVw9jbAR0 (pretty closeups!)
Nikon D800 Photos of Brunette and Blonde Swimsuit Bikini Goddesses with Pretty Green Eyes and Pretty Blue Eyes shot with the Nikon D800E and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens!
Shot in both RAW & JPEG, but all these photos are RAWs finished in Lightroom 4 ! :)
All the Gold'N'Virtue swimsuits with the main equation to Moving Dimensions Theory on the swimsuits: dx4/dt=ic. Yes I have a Ph.D. in physics! :) You can read more about my research and Hero's Journey Physics here:
herosjourneyphysics.wordpress.com/ MDT PROOF#2: Einstein (1912 Man. on Rel.) and Minkowski wrote x4=ict. Ergo dx4/dt=ic--the foundational equation of all time and motion which is on all the shirts and swimsuits. Every photon that hits my Nikon D800e's sensor does it by surfing the fourth expanding dimension, which is moving at c relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt=ic!
Modeling both the the Gold 45 Revolver(TM) Gold'N'Virtue(TM) Black Bikini and the Red, White, an Blue American flag bikini!
May the HJM Goddesses guide, inspire, and exalt ye along yer heroic artistic journey! all the bets on your Heroic Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
Same template from Day 15 - here's my son's first and last day of Third grade.
Template by Cindy Schnieder
The Shadownlands Collection is based on science fiction stories by Dyan Bender.
Rahal is a member of a race that calls themselves the Wanderers, the other species typically call them Natives. They are genetically linked to a feline species called the Helkin. They have a tribal desert culture and work as caravan guards.
She has sharp little fangs, retractile claws and faint spotting pattern along her flanks. Her eyes have a reflective retina like cats. She bleached her long hair white, but has now let it grow to reveal her natural raven roots. She wears an armour of Sand Dragon skin (vintage snake skin lined with dark brown silk), and carries a serrated blade made out of the venomous fang of the same beast (hand sculpted pair, other belonging to Ashe from same collection).
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Special guest degli Helloween e dei Rage, il 31 gennaio all'Alcatraz di Milano, i Crimes Of Passion.
With an epic sense construct of melody, dynamics and power, C.O.P UK (Crimes of Passion) will hit your ears on October 23rd with “Kiss Of An Angel”, a 4-track/2 video EP that refuses to leave your memory.
Produced by Sascha Paeth the Sheffield, England-forged quartet make their intentions clear from the first shimmering guitar of “My Blood”, it’s crisp, melodic metal sound placing C.O.P. UK in the same arena as Saxon, Megadeth and classic White Lion. “Kiss Of An Angel” showcases a soaring sense of balladic warmth which cascades into a slice of classic AOR rock radio, Saxon’s Biff Byford makes a guest appearance on the catchy yet thrash-riffy “Blackened Heart”, while “Blown Away” is a stadium rock classic in the making.
Dale Radcliffe (vocals), Charles Staton (guitar), Andrew Mewse (guitar), Henning Wanner (keys), Scott Jordan (bass) and Kevin Tonge (drums) grew up with the sounds of hometown heroes Def Leppard ringing in their ears, and fusing such influence with an insatiable appetite for performing, C.O.P. UK came together in 2005 and quickly established the type of schedule reserved for the elite. Honing their craft on club stages all over Europe, the band recorded their debut album, To Die For, in 2011 at Blind Guardian’s Twilight Hall Studios, Orion Studios in the UK before being completed at Helloween’s Tenerife studio.
It was during this spell that C.O.P.UK garnered major interest from some of modern metal’s founding fathers. Saxon’s Biff Byford personally invited them to tour Europe in May/June of 2011, touring with them again later that year, as well as appearing at metal festivals throughout the continent. 2012 saw C.O.P. UK’s ascent continue, with recognition from Metal Hammer magazine and further prestigious festival appearances such as the world famous Wacken Open Air and Bloodstock in the UK.
This was the same train location I used for James, our male model of the day. Lizzie, an aspiring model and photographer herself. volunteered to pose for local photographers at the Smithville, Texas, Photo Festival. This is a humbling and brilliant idea because you learn so much by watching rather than than engineering and doing. I myself will often just assist other photographers and it causes me to reflect and think more about what I would or would not be doing as well as evaluating why the photographer I'm helping is doing what they are doing. Lizzie was very popular this day, you can imagine why, and so I'm not sure there was an ability to focus on who was taking her picture at any given time. Later in the day though, as things were winding down and people were leaving, we snuck off into the train and grabbed some shots. This was shot with a large fill reflector bouncing light to the inside of the train following my line of sight. I literally shot right over the top of this giant gold reflector. I also had an SB800 off right, 45° to simulate the ambient liglht, but just beef it up a little bit more. This gave me that nice hotspot in the middle that pushes all the color and saturation away from the center target.
For someone with little modeling experience, Lizzie could pull of a flirty look real fast. I usually reference my same request when I want this look, and I'll offer it to you. "Give me that look that you use when you want someone to buy you a drink when you're out at the bar with your girlfriends. The one that gets the guy to say, I need to buy her a drink!". Now this sounds a little presumptuous that all women have done this. Of course they haven't, but if you're modeling, an attractive young woman, and you live in a college town...there's a good chance you might have. Plus, I've never, EVER, had a model say "oh I've never done that." So if that's the technique they know, I say go with it. Lizzie chuckled when I asked, and then BAM, there was the look.
As I've said to many friends and colleagues, I may not be the greatest photographer ever (far far from it actually) but I do know two things 1) Photoshop. 2) How to read and talk to people. That skill will get you far if you're trying to build a portfolio of work with non-professional models and want good looking work. So keep that in mind, learn how to engage, listen, and respond.
This is the bonnet insignia of the Ford Model A Tudor, manufactured in 1930. The insignia baffled me, as I have photos of other Fords of the same period and earlier, and I hadn't seen one like this, which is a flying goose.
Same photo (with same adjustments with Nik Software) but with selective color blocking/masking where only the blue, yellow, and red colors bleed through.
BOX DATE: 1979
MANUFACTURER: Mattel
DOLLS IN LINE: Starr; Shaun; Kelley; Tracy
MISSING ITEMS: Harmonica, phone, comb, soda, rollerskate
PERSONAL FUN FACT: I still am in shock that I not only got my dream Tracy WITH her outfit, but also some of her accessories! I found all these goodies with my doll in 2019, contained inside a battered, crushed white doll case. Tracy and Starr's jackets look almost identical. But Starr's wrists and waistband have elastics in them, that give the cinched in effect. Both gals also have the same red socks. I admit that their strange body molds make the pair difficult to dress--their rubbery legs are tricky to pull the bodysuit over. I was most surprised to find cardboard Starr accessories floating around the case. At first I thought they were really awesome clone accessories from the 1970s. I was set on keeping them anyways, but Colleen informed me that they could belong to Starr and co. She was looking through our "Thirty Years of Mattel Fashion Dolls" book as we were digging out the contents of the case. I had no idea that the dolls came with books, since the boxed photos in the book are grainy. We also got shoes too--sadly this rollerskate doesn't have a mate! Either way, I never thought I'd find any of the dolls' outfits, let alone some of their delicate accessories...I feel so very lucky!
“The breezes blow in perfect harmony. They are neither hot nor cold. They are at the same time calm and fresh, sweet and soft. They are neither fast nor slow. When they blow on the nets made of many kinds of jewels, the trees emit the innumerable sounds of the subtle and sublime Dharma and spread myriad sweet and fine perfumes. Those who hear these sounds spontaneously cease to raise the dust of tribulation and impurity. When the breezes touch their bodies they all attain a bliss comparable to that accompanying a monk’s attainment of the samadhi of extinction.
“Moreover, when they blow, these breezes scatter flowers all over, filling this buddha-field. These flowers fall in patterns according to their colors, without ever being mixed up. They have delicate hues and a wonderful fragrance. When one steps on these petals the feet sink four inches. When one lifts the foot, the petals return to their original shape and position. When these flowers stop falling, the ground suddenly opens up, and they disappear as if by magic. They remain pure and do not decay, because, at a given time, the breezes blow again and scatter the flowers. And the same process occurs six times a day.
“Moreover, many jewel lotuses fill this world system. Each jewel blossom has a hundred thousand million peals. The radiant light emanating from their petals is of countless different colors. Blue colored flowers give out a blue light. White colored flowers give out a white light. Others have deeper colors and light, and some are of yellow, red, and purple color and light. But the splendor if each of these lights surpasses the radiance of the sun and the moon. From every flower issue thirty-six hundred thousand million rays of light. From each one of these rays issue thirty-six hundred thousand million buddhas…”
from the Sukhāvatīvyūhaḥ Sūtra
“The earth has been there for a long time. She is mother to all of us. She knows everything. The Buddha asked the earth to be his witness by touching her with his hand when he had some doubt and fear before his awakening. The earth appeared to him as a beautiful mother. In her arms she carried flowers and fruit, birds and butterflies, and many different animals, and offered them to the Buddha. The Buddha’s doubts and fears instantly disappeared. Whenever you feel unhappy, come to the earth and ask for her help. Touch her deeply, the way the Buddha did. Suddenly, you too will see the earth with all her flowers and fruit, trees and birds, animals and all the living beings that she has produced. All these things she offers to you. You have more opportunities to be happy than you ever thought. The earth shows her love to you and her patience. The earth is very patient. She sees you suffer, she helps you, and she protects you. When we die, she takes us back into her arms.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh
"Our planet is our house, and we must keep it in order and take care of it if we are genuinely concerned about happiness for ourselves, our children, our friends and other sentient beings who share this great house with us."
- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
“...turn to Conceptual Photography through Zen camera of the mind. Or take up gardening––which is surely the most perfect practice of Zen outside of non-gardening.”
-photographer Edward Putzar
།ས་གཞི་སྤོས་ཀྱིས་བྱུགས་ཤིང་མེ་ཏོག་བཀྲམ།
།རི་རབ་གླིང་བཞི་ཉི་ཟླས་བརྒྱན་པ་འདི།
།སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་དུ་དམིགས་ཏེ་དབུལ་བར་བགྱི།
།འགྲོ་ཀུན་རྣམ་དག་ཞིང་ལ་སྤྱོད་པར་ཤོག།།
།ཨི་དཾ་གུ་རུ་རཏྣ་མཎྜལ་ཀཾ་ནི་རྱཱ་ཏ་ཡཱ་མི།
Every physical atom, in its incessant movements produces a sound which is a song, so that if we had the power of spiritual hearing (genuine clairaudience), we would be able to hear this unimaginably grand symphony of sounds. In such a state we would hear the grass growing and the opening of a flower would itself be a marvelous natural orchestral performance. When you are lost or caught up in an emotional storm or contracted in self-centeredness or plagued by obsessive thoughts, notice what happens when you step outside or go for a walk and pay attention to the sky, the air, the light, the movement of wind, the feel of grass under your feet. Tread softly for we tread on something subtle, ancient, and slow.
Reawakening our connection with nature spirits helps us to live more harmoniously and consciously. We become kinder to the planet because we remember that we’re part of the whole.
“In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room….
This time she came upon a large flower-bed, with a border of daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the middle.
`O Tiger-lily,’ said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, `I wish you could talk!’
`We can talk,’ said the Tiger-lily: `when there’s anybody worth talking to.”
Alice was so astonished that she could not speak for a minute: it quite seemed to take her breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily only went on waving about, she spoke again, in a timid voice — almost in a whisper. `And can all the flowers talk?’
`As well as all can,’ said the Tiger-lily. `And a great deal louder.’
`It isn’t manners for us to begin, you know,’ said the Rose, `and I really was wondering when you’d speak! Said I to myself, “Her face has got some sense in it, thought it’s not a clever one!” Still, you’re the right colour, and that goes a long way.’
`I don’t care about the colour,’ the Tiger-lily remarked. `If only her petals curled up a little more, she’d be all right.’”
William Blake wrote of seeing a world in a grain of sand, holding “Infinity in the palm of your hand.” It speaks to me of infinite life both on Earth, and in earth, the ceaseless abundance within a speck of soil, the infinity of life, from seed to bud to flower to seed, wheeling on through aeons. It suggests the unbreakable cycle, the unending and unending nature of life, creating infinity from within itself.
“I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms. You, gods, since you are the ones who alter these, and all other things, inspire my attempt, and spin out a continuous thread of words, from the world's first origins to my own time.”- Ovid, Metamorphoses Book I
“The mysteries of the Great and the Little World are distinguished only by the form in which they manifest themselves; for they are only one thing, one being. “
- Paracelsus
“If someone has an empty brain—and because of this is vexed by insanity, and is delirious—take the whole grains of wheat and cook them in water. Place these cooked grains around his whole head, tying a cloth over them. His brain may be reinvigorated by their vital fluid, and he may recover his health. Do this until he returns to his right mind.”
- Hildegard of Bingen, Physica
“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the Earth unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep.” - John Milton, Paradise Lost
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” - Confucius
Same as the last picture. IT WAS ON THERE FACEBOOK PAGE SO I DON'T OWN ANYTHING. ALL CREDIT GOES TO THEM!!!
ALine Coaches
Ex Dorset & Wilts
SN03 ECD
Dennis Pointer
Dart
New build A1 pacific Tornado, a personal favorite of mine, had the honour of hauling the first train of the Legends of Steam III gala. Hauling a Mixed 1960’s goods train with Queen Mary and Toad Brake Vans, 60163 impressed onlookers at Burrs Country Park with its three-note chime and Pop Whistle. Having missed out the previous year, Tornado graced the ELRs rails for the first time in Brunswick Green and sported (again for the first time since the 1960s,) all black smokebox and front end details. Safe to say, it was a star runner at this years Legends of Steam event.
Same place as previous photo with a bit of morning mist being burned off with the sun. Feels ethereal!
Anything in the atmosphere, mist, fog, smoke, pollution, even dust will change the mood.
seen aboard a Chiyoda line train, Tokyo. These two young women wearing identical shoes sat down next to each other. They were not friends, just strangers who happened to be wearing the same shoes. they studiously avoided looking at each other, and at each other's feet.
Lensbaby Edge 80 with a prism filter on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.
Like most of you, December is a bit of a hectic month for me so hopefully I will get to see all of your images as quick as I can. In the meantime, I will thank you now in advance for having a peak at my images here.
i've discovered a problem with the current iteration of MS Photos. when i crop the pic it washes out some of the warmer colors - which is making me nuts. until i find a workaround, you're going to see more detail of my surroundings than you really need, oh well.
Harpers of Heath Hayes had this ex London Transport RT KGK 738, it was often found on the Lichfield to Kinstanding (Birmingham) route as seen here. The scene has changed somewhat since this was taken, the road is now a very busy dual carriageway. The background remains much the same except the Walsall - Lichfield railway line has closed.
Peter Shoesmith
Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes and I am left the same. The more things change the more I am the same. I am what I started with, and when it is all over I will be all that is left of me.
(Hugh Prather)
this is a small book, and although it says 'how to knitting' on the cover, it's about crochet!
it has very clear pictures showing crochet stitches both simple and complicated, including the diagram/symbol for the stitch, how it might appear in a charted pattern, step-by-step drawings showing how to make the stitch, and a photo of what the finished stitch looks like.
i found this book to be very useful for me (a crochet beginner) to use along side other japanese crochet books that use charted crochet patterns. it helped me learn how to crochet and how to read japanese patterns at the same time.
This is taken in one of the most beautiful and impressive bldg.s I've toured anywhere, and the most iconic in Iran. The smaller Sheikh Lotfollah mosque on the same square could be the most beautiful. This was taken soon after I arrived in Esfahan city, and in the vast province of Esfahan, which is "the most Persian [province in Iran] in the sense that most foreigners understand the term" according to the LP.
- I made copies in a library in Ghazvin of chapters from an entertaining, edifying old book called 'Persian cities' (1960). Some excerpts follow, including this.:
The MASJID-I-SHAH [EMAM]: "At the southern end of the Maidan [see below] is the great Masjid-i-Shah, 'the Shah's mosque' [renamed the 'Masjed-e Emam' in 1979] with its beautiful dome, twin minarets, imposing portal and another pair of minarets. ... Work on it began in the spring of 1611 [1612 per Bradt]. So anxious was the Shah to see rapid progress made that he ordered his chief architect to commence construction of the walls before the foundations had had time to settle. The architect refused, pointing out that the safety of the bldg. would be endangered, but the Shah would not listen. Finally the architect, after taking careful measurements, went into hiding. As the work could not be carried out without his guidance, it came perforce to a standstill, much to the anger of Shah 'Abbas. When the architect deemed that enough time had elapsed for the foundations to bear the weight of the walls, he reappeared; on taking fresh measurements, he found that the foundations had sunk to an appreciable extent. He then went before the Shah, explained fully what he had done, and obtained the monarch's forgiveness. However, as another means of expediting construction, the Shah insisted on the use of ordinary painted and glazed tiles for most of the interior instead of tile-mosaic [as in the older Jame mosque at Yazd]; he nonetheless had the majestically tall entrance portal [30 m.s high] facing on to the maidan, the twin minarets flanking it [both 42 m.s high], the bulbous dome [54 m.s in height] and other conspicuous parts of the bldg. faced with glazed brick mosaic. Notwithstanding these measures, Shah 'Abbas died [in 1629] some years before the finishing touches could be put to the mosque. It's estimated that no less than 18 million bricks and half a million tiles were used in the construction of this great building."
- Inside the door, which is small relative to the portal, a short corridor and then a hallway lead to an inner courtyard surrounded by four eivans. youtube.com/shorts/WIwigbgOaqU?si=qIOJuCXHJt1SOg8c Three lead into vaulted sanctuaries, the largest (the dome chamber), to the south. The dome-chamber is flanked by two courtyards to the east and west containing a medreseh. The whole complex is lavishly decorated with sumptuous blue tiles which "take on a different hue according to the light conditions." (LP)
- According to Bradt, Shah Abbas ordered construction of this mosque in memory of his ancestor Shah Tahmasp I (d 1576). Construction was completed under Shah 'Abbas's grandson Shah Safi (1629-'42).
- "The entrance portal to the mosque is at the central of the south side of the maidan, but the mosque itself is set at an angle, to face Mecca. So successfully did the architects design this change of access, which occurs within the entrance complex, that it is almost imperceptible; nor is the general aspect from the square unbalanced." ('Architecture of the Islamic World' [AOTIW]) Shah 'Abbas clearly preferred the Maidan be oriented on a north-south axis. I wonder if this was for the lighting and the aesthetic.
- This is the underside of a Persian double-dome, "the inner one absorbing and distributing the structural load so allowing the outer dome to have a more eye-catching outline. There is a 14 m. gap /b/ the 2, the outer shell being supported on huge spars embedded into the inner dome."
- Some scenes from Pasolini's 'Arabian nights' were filmed in this incredible mosque. See from the 2 min. pt. in the video in the link.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX_vu5UdYvo Pasolini was openly gay if you can't tell from this clip. But the dialogue and tone fit with 'The 'Arabian nights', which is fun and a little racy. I like the fable about the young man in his home-town in Yemen who one day let out a great fart so loud that he had to leave town in disgrace. As an old man, he hoped that people in his town might've forgotten about the fart and that he might be able to return, and so one day he mustered the courage to travel there but soon after he arrived, walking through the streets of the town with hope and trepidation, he passed an open window and heard a young girl ask her mother "When did that happen Mommy?" and her mother replied "Oh that was long ago, back before the time of the great fart." He realized then with great sorrow that he could never return home.
- Pasolini filmed his 'Arabian Nights' in Iran (Esfahan and the Murcheh Khvort citadel), Yemen, the deserts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, and in Nepal (Bhaktapur, Patan and Kathmandu), with incredible settings. He fell in love with Yemen in particular, as anyone would who watches this film, a feast for the eyes, with scenes in Taiz, Zabid, Sana'a, Shibam, the Dar al-Hajar palace, and Seiyun. The beautiful Morricone soundtrack helps too.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUUHykKvpKw
- "Shooting was complicated in Esfahan: military guards threw Pasolini and the crew out because they brought donkeys onto the premises of the Shah Mosque [so dumb] and Pasolini had women singing for the scene; this was explicitly prohibited and cost the production a few days delay." (Wikipedia)
- History.: "If the world had no Esfahan, the creator of the world would have no world."
"Esfahan is the meaning of the word 'world.'"
"'World' is the word and 'Esfahan' the meaning."
"The poets of Esfahan had no mean opinion of their city. Rather more modest is the boast of its citizens that "Esfahan is half the world", "Esfahan misf-i-jahan". ... [A]t the height of its glory in the 17th cent., Esfahan was one of the largest cities in the world, rivalling London in size. ... The city owes much to its situation. Not only does it stand in a wide and fertile valley, but it's far from any frontier and, unlike Tabriz, Nishapur, Damghan, and Hamadan, from any invasion route. The Zayandeh-rud (the 'Life-giving river') flows through it and the altitude of 5,200' gives the city a temperate climate. According to the author of the Pahlavi book Eranshahr "the accursed Alexander, the son of Philip" founded Esfahan. But "there are grounds for identifying Esfahan with Strabo's Gabae, where the Achaemenid monarchs at times resided. In default of conclusive evidence in support of these claims, one can safely say that, in light of its good situation and climate, an early origin can be ascribed to it.
- "The legendary hero, the blacksmith Kaveh, is said to have been a native of Esfahan. In his day, Persia groaned under the tyranny of the cruel usurper Zahak (Azhdahak, the dragon of the Avesta), who had a snake growing out of each shoulder. These snakes had to be fed daily on the brains of 2 of his unlucky subjects. When the news came that Zahak had put Kaveh's 2 sons to death to feed his snakes on their brains, the blacksmith incited the populace to rise, hoisted his leather apron on a pole to serve as a standard, and marched at their head against the usurper. The revolt ended with the defeat and death of Zahak.
- "The oldest part of Esfahan was named Gadh or Gai (Strabo's Gabae?), and later Shahristan or 'the Township'. Subsequently a Jewish community settled some 2 miles to the west-NW. In due course the two towns grew to such an extent that they coalesced to form one large city, but this fusion did not occur until @ the 10th cent. The name Esfahan (probably Aspadan, from the older Aspadana) had however been applied jointly to the two towns for some hundreds of years. Opinions differ as to the origins of the Jewish town. Only its Arabic name Yahudiyeh appears to have been preserved. Some authorities maintain that it was Nebuchadnezzar I (604-562 BC) who settled there some of the exiles from Jerusalem, but it's more probable that it was Queen Shushan-Dukht, the Jewish consort of the Sassanian king Yazdigird I (399-420), who founded the town @ 1,000 yr.s later. In Parthian times (249 BC - 226 AD) Esfahan was already the capital of a large province. When Ardeshir I revolted against Artabanus (Ardavan) V, he defeated and killed Shadh Shapur, the satrap of Esfahan, in the early stages of his rebellion. [@ 4 centuries later,] towards the close of the Sassanian era, the city became the place of residence of many of the 'vaspuhran' or members of the 7 great families of Persia. This might have been why Yazdigird III, the last of the Sassanians, sought refuge in Esfahan for a spell following his defeat by the Muslim Arabs before resuming his flight when his pursuers drew near. The city itself surrendered to the Arabs in @ 642 following a series of battles in the neighbourhood.
- "Esfahan became the capital of the province of al-Jibal under Muslim rule, and was renowned for the quality of its textiles ('attabi' in particular, a striped silk fabric named for Attabiyya, the quarter in Baghdad where it was originally made [the origin of the English word 'Tabby' {Huh!} which today applies only to cats with streaked or brindled coats]) and metalwork. The early 10th cent. geographer Ibn Rusta, a native, described the city as half a league in diameter, with 4 gates, a central fortress, and containing 'the Saruq' (likely the ancient Tabarak citadel) which he claimed predated the Flood. Esfahan was ruled in this period by the Persian House of Buwaih and then by the Persian Kakuyid until 1051 when the Seljuq Tughril Beg seized the city and made it the capital of his rapidly growing empire. The following year, the well-known Persian traveler and Isma'ili propagandist Nasir-i-Khusrau (whose teachings greatly influenced Hasan-i Sabbah, the founder of the Order of the Assassins) visited Esfahan, described the city in some detail, and wrote that he had "never seen, in any place where Persian is spoken, a finer, larger and more prosperous city."
- "Alp Arslan retained Esfahan as his capital while his son and successor, Sultan Malikshah (1072-'92) preferred it to any of his other cities.
- In the 1220s, the Mongol tsunami was "checked outside [the city] in a great battle waged against [it] by the heroic Jalal ad-Din Khwarazmshah", but which would only delay the Mongol conquest. "Like the Arabs 600 yr.s earlier, the Mongols refrained from sacking Esfahan and butchering its inhabitants. Rather, after acquiring some of the polish and refinement of the Persians, they became patrons of the arts and took some steps to embellish the city." (A famous stucco mihrab in the Jame masjid is Il-Khanid.) The Muzaffarids succeeded the Mongols, and Timur Leng (Tamerlane) took the city in 1388, sparing the city and the locals, but then slaughtered > 70,000 in his response to a revolt, and built a pyramid of their skulls.
- The Timurids were followed by the Qara-Qoyunlu (the 'Black Sheep' Turcomans), but "the fortunes of Esfahan took an upward turn with the arrival of the Safavid dynasty at the turn of the 16th cent. Shah Isma'il (r 1501-'24), the first Safavid, made Tabriz his capital, but would often visit Esfahan where he laid out the spacious park known as the Naqsh-i-Jahan ('the Picture of the World') in the area to the west of the Maidan." His successor, Shah Tahmasp I (r 1524-'76), spent much time at Esfahan, and would reside at the small Timurid palace fronting on to the great Maidan. (See the write-up for the Ali Qapu.) "It was doubtless in this palace that he entertained the Mughal emperor Hemayun when, in 1541, that monarch had temporarily to abandon his throne and seek sanctuary and support in Persia. Six years later, when the Shah's brother Ilkhas Mirza rebelled against him and allied himself with the Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, Turkish forces invaded Persia and occupied Esfahan for a time.
- "The Golden Age of Esfahan began during the reign of Shah 'Abbas the Great [r 1588-1629], the most capable and illustrious of the Safavids. Early in his reign, in the intervals /b/ his campaigns against the Turks and other foes, he visited Esfahan on several occasions. The situation of the city, its good climate, and, above all, its distance from any frontier [relative to Tabriz and Ghazvin], led him to transfer his court there permanently from Ghazvin in the spring of 1598. Over the remaining 31 years of his reign, he replanned and largely rebuilt the city, personally supervising a great part of the work. He was extremely well served by his own architects and master-masons, but didn't hesitate to supplement their work by importing artists and artisans from Italy and other European countries, as well as from India and even China. Once again, as in the time of Darius, craftsmen from many lands were brought to Persia to assist in the embellishment of the royal bldg.s, but in this case they were not all subjects of the king. His greatest achievement in Esfahan is undoubtedly the creation of the magnificent monuments which still grace the Maidan-i-[Imam, amongst which this mosque is pre-eminent]. In this task he consciously or subconsciously copied the Seljuqs' 12th cent. achievements at their Maidan-i-Kuhneh or 'Old Square'. Like them, he believed that his capital should have a fitting centre. The Maidan itself is of noble proportions, being 1,674' long and 540' wide.
- "In the course of his campaigns in Azerbaijan, Shah 'Abbas was impressed with the energy and ability of the Armenian inhabitants of the town of Jolfa, on the Aras (Araxes) river. To encourage trade and industry in Esfahan, he determined to [forcibly] transfer several thousand of them to a site on the south side of the Zayandeh-rud" (and did so at 'New Jolfa'. Cont. in the write-up for the Beit-ol Lahm [Bethlehem] church in New Jolfa.) The Shah was "amply rewarded" for the 'resettlement' "by the impetus which these clever traders and craftsmen gave to the commerce and industry" of the city.
- "With the death of Shah 'Abbas in Jan., 1629, the decline of the Safavid empire set in, but it was long before the process of decay became manifest. As for Esfahan, it continued, until the fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1722, to be the great metropolis of the empire. Shah 'Abbas was succeeded by his grandson Shah Safi (r 1629-'42), who was followed by Shah 'Abbas II (r 1642-'66), Shah Sulaiman (r 1666-'94), and the last Safavid, Shah Sultan Husain (1694-1722). The famous Huguenot John Chardin, court jeweller to Charles II, who lived in Esfahan for @ 10 yr.s /b/ 1664 and '77, noted that the city was "as populous as London, which was then, as he rightly remarked, "la ville la plus peuplée de l'Europe". As we know from other sources that London had some 670,000 inhabitants at the close of the 17th cent., we shall not be far wrong if we put the population of Esfahan at a little > 600,000 in those days. According to Chardin, Esfahan had in his time 162 mosques, 48 colleges, 273 hamams, no less than 1,802 caravanserais and 12 cemeteries." (Chardin recorded a couplet he found in one of the royal palaces, which read: "When I was about to marry, the married folk were dumb. Now that I am married, those who are about to marry are deaf." :D )
- "Alas for Esfahan! Its period of glamour and glory was soon to come to a sudden and terrible end. ... Disaster came like a bolt from the blue. From 1720 to '22 Persia suffered a series of shattering blows from the Ghalzai Afghans, the Turks and the Russians. Most of her territory was overrun, and Esfahan itself underwent a terrible siege at the hands of the barbarous Afghans. Muhammad Muhsin, a Persian historian who experienced the siege, has described how the citizens were at length reduced to [cannibalism of the dead]. On one occasion, Muhsin was sent with some others to look for hidden hoards of food. In the course of their search they came upon a cellar filled with sacks which, when they opened them, they found to contain coins worth a fabulous sum. He and his companions were so disappointed at finding $ instead of grain that they left sacks and their contents lying where they had found them." After a siege of seven months and the deaths of 100s of 1000s, the city was forced to surrender, and the Shah abdicated in favour of Mahmud, the Afghan leader, who threw him into prison and slaughtered most male members of the royal family. Fearing a revolt by the Esfahanis, who, despite the ravages of the siege, greatly outnumbered his Afghan troops, Mahmud ordered his men to commit a wholesale massacre. Esfahan has never fully recovered from the combined effects of the siege and this slaughter, in which over 90% of the population lost their lives. [! - I didn't know.] Moreover, large areas of the city were razed to the ground. Mahmud's successor, Ashraf, put the ex-Shah to death in 1727.
- "The famous general Nadr Quli Beg defeated the Afghans, drove them from Esfahan, seized the throne and reigned as Nadir Shah, but made Mashad his capital." (The capital would move to Shiraz under Karim Khan Zand in 1762 and to Tehran in 1786.) In the chaotic period that followed Nadir Shah's assassination in 1747 Esfahan was looted twice, first by the Bakhtiari tribe and later by Afghan rebels and Lurs, thus further adding to its misfortunes and those of its citizens. One James Morier, who visited Esfahan early in the 19th cent., wrote that "one might suppose that God's curse had extended over parts of the city, as it did over Babylon. Houses, bazaars, mosques, palaces, whole streets are to be seen in total abandonment; and I have rode for miles amongst its ruins without meeting with any living creature, except perhaps a jackal peeping over a wall, or a fox running to his hole" ('Persian Cities', 1960). This is hard to believe in light of how well-preserved and lovely the city's early 17th cent. monuments are today, but while "[t]he power and breadth of Shah 'Abbas's vision is still very much in evidence, what remains is just a small taste of what the city looked like at its height" during the early 17th-cent. reign of Shah 'Abbas I. (LP) Wow. Reza Shah Pahlavi is given credit for much of the renovation.
- Tourism in Esfahan is less cerebral than in any other city that I toured in Iran. With the exception of the fascinating Jame mosque, several early mosques and shrines and a collection of ancient minarets in the older, northern half of the city, and the adobe ateshkadeh complex at or past the edge of town, Esfahan for tourists is all about a series of exceptional 17th cent. Safavid monuments. In that way, tourism in Esfahan is akin to tourism in Ani (but which is more cerebral), Sivas, Beijing, St. Petersburg or Agra, an exploration of a flowering of art and architecture in a distinctive, magnificent style from a moment in time. Magnificent is truly the best word to describe Esfahan. I've also read that Esfahan has the greatest concentration of Islamic monuments in Iran.
- youtu.be/a9FVrJS4MzU?si=a-iwZjyTpqouJ3NF
- youtu.be/TEHC307aK_E?si=MR6GAoHM4BVrmtJ6
- This vlogger has a suitable level of appreciation and enthusiasm for Esfahan and the local culture.: youtu.be/eVzPH8RT6P0?si=sYuYYensO2U24ulq
- I write this is in November, 2024.: In early Jan., 2020, President-elect Trump threatened to target Iranian cultural sites "if Iran retaliates against the U.S." for the assassination of General Soleimani on Jan. 3. He's now set to nominate Fox news troll Pete Hegseth as U.S. Secretary of Defense, who also advocated to hit Iranian cultural sites. I don't know who put that idea in Trump's head, but the Iranian military and the IRGC have famously excavated very deep, extensive, subterranean tunnels and caves to house missile production facilities, etc., and would see no advantage in placing any of their assets at any cultural sites (certainly not after the IDF has repeatedly bombed every mosque, church, hospital, university, etc. in Gaza since Oct. 7, '23). This mosque and that of Sheikh Lotfollah, Esfahan's Jame mosque, the Sheikh Safi-ad Din Khanegah and shrine ensemble at Ardabil, and the Imam Reza shrine in Mashad are the greatest Islamic monuments in the country, and threats to destroy or damage them are nothing but sadistic, unless those threats involve some jealousy as well. But of course any bombing with bunker buster bombs thickly coated in depleted uranium (D.U.), as in Beirut this month, would be even worse, much worse, contaminating the bomb-site forever, causing cancers and birth defects as with Gulf War syndrome, Afghan syndrome, and Balkans syndrome, but worse still as it seems that much more D.U. was used in Beirut. Evil. (I'm not religious, but if I was I might take some interest in the similarity /b/ pentagons and pentagrams, or inverted pentagrams. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_of_Baphomet )
- I stayed in Esfahan over 9 days, but don't recall anything about the hotel or hostel where I stayed, although it would've been in the 'budget range' (very much so), and European tourists were staying there, more than I'd met in my first month in the country (which isn't saying much). One person I remember was Ellen, a pretty brunette with a hair-lip from Norway, a solo traveler, quiet but adventurous, who recruited my services as a chaperone one evening to accompany her in her search for Sufis. We walked quite a ways and asked anyone we came across who could speak English, but had no luck. It would've been easier to find Christians, Jews or Zoroastrians. (Kermanshah is known for Sufism, but it's officially discouraged in Iran, generally.) I don't know just what she expected from the Sufis, whether or how they would involve her in their observances or their cosmology, but she was on a quest. It seemed she'd come to Iran in a search for enlightenment, or maybe for love.
- "The Islamic Republic of Iran has harassed Sufis, reportedly for their lack of support for the government doctrine of "governance of the jurist" (i.e., that the supreme Shiite jurist should be the nation's political leader)." (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Sufis According to that Wikipedia entry, the persecution and suppression of Sufis in Iran, or at least those in Shi'ite regions, has increased since 2000. Sufis are more or less suppressed across the Islamic world. "Sufism [has been perceived] as emotional and uncontrollable, reaching beyond reason to a state of ecstasy and Truth reached through practices of dancing and physical self-deprivation. It is regarded as a dissenting form of worship at odds with authoritarian power structures." (Wikipedia)
I toured the following sights and sites.:
Around the Maidan:
1. The MAIDAN: "This huge, open square, laid out in 1612, is one of the largest in the world (500 x 160 m.s), and a majestic example of town planning." (LP) "The mast or pole that was in the centre of the maidan has long since disappeared. Atop this pole, which was @ 25' high, was a target or mark which, on special occasions, was a golden cup; at other times a melon or an apple. It was the practice of the Shah and his nobles to ride at full gallop past the pole, and then, turning back in their saddles in Parthian fashion, to discharge their arrows at their mark. ... The original goalposts [from the Shah's polo ground] are still in place and to be seen at either end of the Maidan," which I don't recall. ('Persian cities')
2. The MOSQUE of SHEIKH LOTFOLLAH (1603-1618):
"On the eastern side of the [Maidan] is the superb Masjid-i-Lutfullah [or Lotfollah] aka the Masjid-i-Sadr, the mosque which Shah 'Abbas erected in honour of his saintly father-in-law and which he used for his private devotions. This mosque is much smaller than the Masjid-i-[Emam], but it's an even finer example of what the Shah's architects, builders and craftsmen could accomplish. Its exquisite dome, adorned with lovely arabesques, [and with "pale tiles that change colour from cream through to pink according to the light conditions" {LP}], eclipses in beauty that of its larger neighbour. The interior is covered with tile mosaic rivalled in quality only by similar contemporary work in the ... shrine of Iman Reza at Mashad." ('Persian Cities', 1960) (I didn't make it to Mashad.) The tile-mosaic of the facade has been largely restored but the interior is entirely covered with its original mosaic. The mosque is unusual in that it has no minaret nor a courtyard (as, again, it was private).
- "The portal dedication emphasizes the explicit Shi'a role of the shah as the "reviver of the virtues of his pure ancestors, and propagator of the doctrine of the pure Imams. ... Surface patterns of ceramic shapes, sometimes set into unglazed brick, disguise thick walls which support the single-shell dome (diameter 13 m.s) while turquoise barley-twist cables outlining the full-length squinches lead the eye into the dome. We always wonder how the pattern designer calculated for the diminishing size of the [lozenges] on the dome’s concave surface. No wonder geometry, algebra and mathematics developed in the Islamic world." (Bradt)
- "Sunlight filters through a series of double grilles in the drum, resting on squinches that rise directly from the floor. Each of the 8 pointed arches supporting the dome is outlined by [the said cables] framing a number of inlays with inscriptions or foliage." (AOTIW)
- This mosque is darker, cooler and more intimate than the crowded Masji-e Emam and I took my time to take it all in, and sat by a wall looking up and around, gawking in awe. (Photography in the interior was forbidden.) I should've bought a poster of a photo of the inner dome on sale in a shop or 2 across the Maidan. Here it is.: youtube.com/shorts/i6ymddxcGKs?si=QNKkwKqZCUFDFE_a youtu.be/spSPAKEvFXI?si=xnlMhcpvTFPTnTCQ It's certainly one of the 5 most beautiful buildings I've ever toured. I don't know what most of those five might be, but I know they include the Taj Mahal. So at least 2 of those most beautiful bldg.s were designed by Iranians (or Iranians and Ustad A. Lahori, a Punjabi of Iranian heritage and ethnicity). My top 5 likely includes the Masjed-e Emam as well.
-The Maidan (with the Shiekh Lotfollah dome seen at the start): youtube.com/shorts/gJeCuyaYCKc?si=nnoHH8L2QzGaiOcD
3. The 'ALI QAPU palace: (See my write-up for my photo taken inside it.)
4. The perimeter of the Maidan (i.e. the Emam Khomeini square): "In the centre of the northern side of the Maidan is the high, tiled gateway of the Qaisariyeh, the Imperial bazaar. Flanking this gateway were the two galleries of the Naqqareh-Khaneh where [back in the day] orchestras of trumpets and kettle-drums played violently and discordantly at dusk and again at 2 a.m. [?] [Here a vlogger explores beautiful, restored "VIP" music rooms on the upper floor of this 'gateway' bldg., which were probably closed to tourism in 2000.: youtu.be/llcax66iOCg?si=D_Xn8AykrwfcvU0h ] A line of 2-storeyed bldg.s of uniform, arcaded design runs right @ the square /b/ [the Maidan's] monuments. The ground floor was and still is used to accommodate shops, and dwellings were on the upper floor. Shah 'Abbas housed many of his skilled craftsmen in these bldg.s. ... On great occasions and at times merely for his own pleasure, the Shah would have these bldg.s surrounding the Maidan illuminated with small lamps, of which, we are told, there were no less than 50,000." ('Persian Cities') I bought some good quality books with old photos and quality postcards in shops lining the Maidan, and enjoyed the atmosphere and the views on repeated visits. The LP writes that the square is "(usually) beautifully illuminated" at 8 p.m. when local families visit.
- I patronized a popular cafe on a high, upper level at the NW corner of the square, above and next to the entrance to the bazaar, with great views over the Maidan, and took a few puffs of flavoured smoke from a hookah (although I don't smoke).
- The QAISARIYEH or GRAND bazaar (1620): Originally constructed in the 11th cent., this bazaar grew to become one of the largest and most luxurious trading centres in the Middle East, a vaulted, 2-km.-long street linking the older Seljuk neighborhood in the north with the 17th cent. Safavid hood in the south (and with @ 5 km.s of corridors and walkways in total per the LP) and incl. "mosques, tea-shops, hamams and even gardens". Destroyed several times, it dates to the 17th cent. in its current form. I was more impressed with it and its decorative and visibly ancient aspects than any other bazaar that I toured in Iran. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Isfahan_Grand_Bazaar#...
- youtube.com/shorts/4-YOa2_aAnI?si=77F1doJg0QcOC7IX
- The CHEHEL SOTOUN ('40 Columns') palace and museum (Cheh-hell So-toon, Safavid, 1647): Shah 'Abbas II built this beautiful palace pavilion for coronations (Solayman aka Safi II was crowned within on March 20, 1668) and the reception of foreign embassies, around a small pavilion built for 'Abbas I (57.8 x 37 m.s). 20 16-m.-tall, wooden columns on the large, open verandah (tālār) are reflected in a pool which provides the other 20, hence the name. But another theory has it that "40 was once used synonymously with 'many' in ancient Persian, and still is in some quarters." (LP) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chehel_Sotoun,_Isfahan,_I...
- "The 4 columns in the centre [of the portico], surrounding a small basin, rest on bases carved as [stylized] lions, while the alcove at the rear of the portico is decorated with the remains of the mirror-mosaics that, originally, entirely covered the walls." (AOTIW)
- The small, crowded museum within exhibits the obligatory ceramics, old coins, militaria and several Qurans, incl. "one said to be in the handwriting of the 2nd Imam". (LP) Six murals painted on ceramic panels on the interior walls of the banquet hall could be the most famous murals or paintings in Iran. They depict such scenes as:
1. The famous reception of the Mughal Emperor Hemayun, who took refuge in Iran in 1544, by Shah Tahmasp I (r 1524-'76), with a large retinue, musicians and very un-Islamic dancing girls in the foreground. (It's no surprise that this and the two of the other murals that depict banquets were covered up for @ 15 - 20 yr.s following the Islamic revolution. [LP]) It fascinates Indian visitors. Could it be the most famous painting in the country? It's the best represented Persian mural or painting on all the postcard racks. ranasafvi.com/the-famous-humayun-and-shah-tahmasp-fresco-...
2. The reception and entertainment of Walī Moḥammad Khan, Uzbek ruler of Turkistan, by Shah ʿAbbas I, with more dancing girls et al. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Painting_in_Chehel_Sotoun...
3. The reception by Shah ʿAbbās II of an Uzbek ambassador in 1646. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iran,_Chehel_Sotoun,_Cult...
4. The victory of Isma'il I (r 1501-'24) over the Uzbek Saybani Khan at the Battle of Marv in 1510. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marv#/media/File:Fresco_c... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chehel_Sotoun#/media/File:Chehel_So...
5. A later, Qajar-era mural of a battle, Nadir Shah's victory over the Mughal emperor Mohammad of India at Karnal in 1739 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chehel_Sotoun_%D8%B9%D9%8... and
6. Another Qajar-era depiction of a battle, Shah Isma'il's "triumph over the Janissary aga at Chaldiran" (Iranicaonline.org) ? - But Chaldiran was a rout for Selim the Grim's Ottomans on Aug. 23, 1514. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Painting_in_Chehel_Sotoun... commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_painting_in_Chehel_Soto...
The walls of the banquet hall are otherwise coated in dazzling decorative detail, of course, with floral arabesques, muqarnas vaulting, etc.
- More murals were discovered in the flanking rooms under a coat of whitewash applied in the Qajar period, incl. landscapes, figural compositions, scenes from Persian poetry with Khosrow and Shirin, et al., etc. (Iranicaonline.org) Two women in one scene in one mural wear garments that are see-through above the waist. (!) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sathi.jpg
- Alterations have been made over the centuries. The 20 columns in the porch and the exterior walls behind were coated in reflective mirrors in the renovation of 1706 such that "the mass of structure appear[ed] to be of glass, and when new must have glittered with magnificent splendour." (J.J. Morier)
- The superb gardens, 67,000 m.s2 [formerly @ 7 ha.s], with a large pool, 110 x 16 m.s, are included in the collective Unesco site 'Persian Gardens', designated in 2011, one of nine in Iran. And there's much early-19th-cent., stylized stone sculpture in the round of lions and standing maidens on the grounds too. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chehel_Sotoun_%D8%B9%D9%8...
- youtu.be/fVSAFpa1XvM?si=H03IZVoRntBDs323
- The HASHT BEHESHT palace (1669, Safavid): (See my comment for my photo taken inside it.)
- Safavid BRIDGES across the Zayandeh-rud, incl. the Khaju and the Si-o-SePol: (See my comment for my photo taken on the latter bridge.)
- The MEDRESEH-ye CHAHAR BAGH ('School of the Four Gardens'), built by the mother of Shah Sultan Husain, previously known as the Medrese-ye Madar-e Shah ('Seminary of the Shah's mother'), and completed in 1715, is "one of the most beautiful and attractive of the monuments of the whole Safavid era." It includes a mosque with a dome similar to that of the Masjed-e Emam but smaller, and 160 rooms behind rows and rows of pointed-arched eivans, all covered in fine tiles with arabesques, etc. Allegedly Shah Husain spent the night before his execution in 1727 (by the Afghan warlord Ashraf) in one of the small rooms or cells (one of the eivans) looking out onto the courtyard. (I've read that a scene in Pasolini's 'Arabian nights' was filmed in that courtyard.) I walked and gawked through it at least a few times in transit.
- I also took a look @ the former early 18th-cent. caravanserai which became the luxury Abbasi Hotel in 1955 with its fine courtyard and which is handy to the medreseh.
- The VANK CATHEDRAL aka the Holy Savior Cathedral aka the Church of the Saintly Sisters (Armenian Apostolic, 1606) and museum, the BEIT-OL LAHM (Bethlehem) aka Bedkhem church (Armenian, 1628), and NEW JOLFA (the Armenian quarter): (See my comment for my photo taken in the Beit-ol Lahm church.)
- The GOLESTAN-E SHOHADA cemetery: (See my comment for my photo taken there.)
- The KETER DAVID SYNAGOGUE (Kenisa-ye Keter David aka the 'Cathedral Synagogue' aka the Kanise-ye Esfahan [per the LP], 1940): I visited this relatively large, modern synagogue one evening or late one afternoon, @ 800 m.s SW of the Maidan, as it had an entry in my LP guide (the only synagogue with a mention, despite the importance of Judaism to the city's early medieval history, see above). Built in the 'Pahlavi style', I've read that it houses 500-yr.-old copies of the Torah written on vellum, and has a popular mikveh (or 'miqwa', 1944). This article includes photos taken inside.: en.shafaqna.com/171487/living-conditions-are-now-better-t... Sadly, my visit involved another miss a bit similar to that in the Falak ol-aflak in Khorramabad, one of my bigger misses in the country. The bldg. was open, I walked in and immediately met some very friendly, warm, and welcoming locals. My memory's fuzzy but I recall it was wide with pews or rows of chairs (the latter), and with a friendly, grinning woman sitting at the left. The people inside and I had a discussion and they were happy to talk about their lives in Esfahan. I can only paraphrase, but they said they were happy there and had no desire to leave for Israel nor anywhere else. (Again, these are 'the Children of Esther', members in a community with roots that run very deep in the country, back to the early 1st mill. B.C. The 'Aryans', aka Arya, the ancestors of the Persians themselves and the Kurds, arrived only @ millenium or so earlier.) It's possible they were just being charming and agreeable, but they were open, candid and seemed entirely sincere. (This was in 2000, which seems like a long time ago in this context, but this CNN article from 2015 is consistent with my impression.: www.cnn.com/2015/03/11/middleeast/iran-jews-esfahan/index... ) I can't recall what else was said, but near the end of the discussion I remarked that the synagogue seemed relatively new and that there must be older, much more historic synagogues in town, and they responded "Oh yes", nodding with eyebrows raised, etc. and one older man offered to take me to visit some on a tour in his car for a fee. I had the impression they would've been hard to find and to access otherwise, hidden away in alleyways (even Armenian churches in New Jolfa were a trick to find) but that was likely an assumption. It was a fair one (as I explain below). Whatever his fee was it was very reasonable, @ as little as the equivalent of $10.00 or more, and I was tempted but I was on the tightest budget ever and had to decline. (I was paying @ $5.00 per night for a bed most nights, albeit in the cheapest or the worst digs. Most sights and sites were free and every dollar saved prolonged my trip.) I've wondered ever since what he would have shown me. Well the internet to the rescue! I've learned that there are from 16 to 24 synagogues in Esfahan, 7 of which are registered in the list of National monuments of Iran, and that at least 8 are in a cluster in a neighborhood named Joubareh, aka Yahudiyeh (per Google maps) in the older, Seljuk part of town, only 150-400 m.s NE of the world-famous Jame mosque. Most date from the 19th and 20th cent.s (many built over older synagogues), consist of fired mud-brick with adobe cladding, and most have octagonal skylight-towers, some visibly ancient, through which sunlight shines down on the cantor and the dukhan or bimah (typically 3 x 3 m.s) at the centre of each sanctuary. "The entire interior space of the synagogue is “separated” from the outside world and has minimal connection to it. To reach this space, one must follow a path, one that is generally dark and long; a path that cuts off the ongoing connection with the mortal world and prepares one for a renewed “presence”; a presence before the creator of light and illumination." www.7dorim.com/en/pictures/joubareh-neighborhood-isfahan-... maps.app.goo.gl/XaYnbSL9e5SmBD9j6 The Golbahar Mohammad Safari synagogue (8th cent.), @ 100 m.s SW of the Imam Ali square, is said to be the oldest in the city, although apart from an ancient plaque and its stone-carved dukhan, it appears almost new. youtu.be/eOEAhiywLAk?si=WrDl7mD54_29r4-7 The loveliest of the city's synagogues is the Molla Nisan (early 20th cent.) in Joubareh, with its muqarnas vaulting, Persian floral frescos, etc. www.7dorim.com/en/pictures/the-molla-nisan-synagogue-of-i... So I imagine that that man would've taken me to the Golbahar synagogue and then to Joubareh to show me @ the synagogues there, most of which (all?) are locked up today and hard to find. And of course I regret declining his offer. (Several in the site in the next link are unbeknownst to Google maps.)
- Here's a site that's a vault of photos taken in the synagogues in Joubareh, etc.: www.7dorim.com/en/?s=Esfahan
- According to this article re the 'Molla (Mulla) Yaghoob (Jacob) synagogue' archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/782/ , geniza records from Cairo suggest that Persian communities in ancient times had been quite large. While the community was often highly respected, there were times when its members were under duress to convert, such as during the reign of 'Abbas II, through the threat of confiscation of inheritance. "By 1889 there were only @ 400 Jewish families left in Esfahan and most were poor. The Alliance Israelite Universelle established a school in the city in 1901. By 1968 the school had expanded to provide both a high school and an elementary school for Jewish students. ... Of the 18 functioning synagogues, now only one [the Keter David] is in use" (although the Golbahar looks to be in occasional use at least, in the video in the 3rd-last link above).
- Here a vlogger explores and films at Joubareh. (The lovely panel of 12 tiles [which looks to be Qajar] with 2 angels and the Decalogue above an entrance at the 42 sec. pt. was recently removed or stolen, per photos on google maps.): youtu.be/8XSDI8BigmY?si=ZiAQB04ZCNykooNF
- youtu.be/MhJ16uH0ETI?si=f15RpKuz0LNMuDH9
- Watch 'Jewish journey to Iran', an interesting discussion on 'Israel Hayom' /b/ a guy with a Buffalonian accent and a Jewish columnist re her two visits to Iran, specifically to Jewish communities in Tehran, Hamadan and Esfahan.: youtu.be/MHcugV6vgDU?si=Wj9kLWrbqPb5neh8 She was impressed. She's critical, but considers that Iran is filled with "beautiful contradictions", and when asked what surprised her most on her trip (at the 11:40 min. pt.), she (very) readily responds: "How much I loved the country. Aside from Israel, I've never fallen that deeply in love with a country. ... The people, the mentality, the Persian and the Jewish mentality are quite alike. I mean we're very academic, very family-oriented, warm, respectful people, both of us, and I felt a strong connection to the people, and it's beautiful." But she says (at the 45 sec. pt.) that before she visited she rarely thought of Iranian Jews "outside of a pogrom context." Travel's always the best education. (A 2nd cousin of mine repeats a great quote. [I forget from whom.]: "I don't like those people much. I'll have to get to know them better.")
- All that said, the main challenge facing Iranian Jewry today is their low population (only 9,826 in 2016 according to a census, although the largest in the Middle and Near East after Israel), and the strict prohibition against Muslim apostasy. Their population can only grow from within or from marriage to foreigners who would then immigrate, a tall order. A far greater number of Iranian Jews live in Israel today than in Iran.
- youtu.be/dUP571KQyRQ?si=Ggmhr_H46uewaYRp
- The MASJED-E JAME, the 11th-18th cent. 'Museum of Islamic archictecture': (See my comment for my photo taken in an eivan in that mosque.)
- The IMAM ALI MINARET and MOSQUE (Seljuk, 1118-'57): This incredible minaret, the oldest in Esfahan, is 52 m.s high (I've also read 48), 2 m.s shy of the Sarban minaret near Joubareh (if so), the tallest in Esfahan province. A tapering cylindrical shaft built entirely of brick with decorative brick-work in recess, a prominent 'girdle' or balcony near the top, and 4 Kufic inscriptions, 3 highlighted with blue, glazed tiles, it was built together with the Imam Ali mosque during the reign of the Seljuk Khan Sanjar (r 1118-1157). The mosque was designed in the classic 4-eivan plan with a domed sanctuary in the qibla wing, and was renovated during the reign of Shah Isma'il I (1501-'24), much of it covered in tiles with floral and geometric motifs in blue, turquoise and white, a band with a Kufic inscription on the exterior of the dome, etc. www.archnet.org/sites/1611
- "The Chihil Dukhtaran and other Seljuq minarets [such as the Ali minaret] appear to have had considerable influence on the successive Ghurid victory towers built over Afghanistan and North of the Indian Subcontinent in the 12th to 13th cent.s." www.archnet.org/sites/1614
- The IMAMZADEH HARUN-e-VILAYET (Safavid, 1512-'13, restored in 1656-'57): "There are many accounts of Harun Vilayet," the man buried within, including that he's the son of the 10th Imam, the son of the 11th, the grandson of the 6th, and of the 7th. Whoever he was, his shrine is "the most important historical structure related to the early Safavid era" and "greatly influenced Safavid Esfahan's urban design in the 16th cent. The square of Harun-i Vilayet was at the centre of the city from the time of the reign of Shah Isma'il, the first Safavid ruler, until Shah 'Abbas I shifted the focus to the Maidan-i Shah in 1590." The shrine's construction is "attributed to Mirza Shah Husain, a vassal of Durmish Khan Shamlu, Isfahan's governor under Safavid Shah Ismail I." www.archnet.org/sites/3904 The interior is "only accessible during performances" of passion plays (Archnet), and was closed when I was there. Interesting murals and paintings with figural compositions of Ali, Fatima et al. adorn the walls of the antechamber as seen on google maps. Devotions here are reputed to work miracles. Some Armenian Christians worship here as well (?).
- Unusually, in 2000, huge (roof-high), very non-iconoclastic (un-Islamic?) portraits of Khomeini and Khamenei loomed to the left and right, respectively, of the ornate, tile-clad eivan in the entrance portal to the medreseh (adjoining the shrine itself), beside and beneath the minaret of Imam Ali. (They reminded me of Ataturk's cult of personality. I'll scan a photo.)
- the IMAMZADEH JA'FAR (Il-Khanid, 1320s): This slender, free-standing, octagonal tomb tower was built for a descendant of the 5th Imam. (For some strange reason, a Wikipedia entry writes at length that the occupant was a famous companion of Muhammad [who was also entombed in Jordan]. - ?) It's built with yellow, fired brick, has 2 impressive bands of tile mosaic inscription @ the top, and looks fairly new. (I don't recall it, but I took a photo of it.) www.archnet.org/sites/1617 See this older photo of the bands of tiles from the Smithsonian and be amazed at how much and how well it's been restored since it was taken.: www.si.edu/object/archives/components/sova-fsa-a-06-ref28...
- The DARB-e-IMAM ('The Shrine of the Imams', Qara Qoyunlu, from 1453, much of it restored in the 17th and 18th cent.s): This is a funerary complex with 2 shrines, a mosque, a mausoleum with a royal cemetery, and a stone sculpture that I photographed in its courtyard of a lion with a man's head in its open mouth. The cemetery dates to the Seljuk era and "[t]he first bldg. in the complex was built [in 1453 by Jahan Shah, two yr.s after Esfahan fell to the 'Qara Qoyunlu', to house the tomb of his mother, and] ... as an Imamzadeh for two saints, Ibrahim Tabatabai and Zayn al-'Abidin Ali, [alleged] descendants of Ali ibn Abi Talib", THE Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law, the 4th Imam, "through Ja'far al-Sadiq", the 6th. 12 more of Ali's descendants are buried there according to tradition. The complex grew to become a venerated burial ground for Safavid princes and dignitaries. "Shah 'Abbas I exhumed the remains of his predecessor Shah Tahmasp, who was defiled by Mongols in Mashhad," and reburied him there. The complex is known for the "brilliance of quality and colour of [its] early Timurid tile work" and its plaster inscription friezes. Its raised tile mosaic patterns and thuluth inscriptions were an influence on later Safavid architects. www.archnet.org/sites/3901
- The DARDASHT MINARETS and the TOMB of SULTAN BOKHT AGHA (late 14th cent.): The occupant Sultan (the wife or queen of the Shah and the niece of the last Injuid ruler, Sheikh Abu Ishaq Inju, executed by her husband or her father-in-law in 1357, and celebrated in Persian literature, incl. in the works of Hafez) was married to the Muzaffarid Shah Mahmud Ibn Amir Mobarez al-Din Muhammad, who, "although he was fascinated by [her] perfection," murdered her in a drunken rage one night during Hamadan, and then blamed her for an alleged plot to (somehow) capture and surrender him to his enemy Shah Shoia Ibn Amir Mobarez alDin Muhammad, for whom she would open the gates of Esfahan, all "to avenge the blood of her uncle." An inscription on her tomb reads: "This is the sacred stone which was created by the Great Khatun Sultan Bokht Agha, the daughter of Al-Amir Khosrow Shah. May God grant her success after her death in Ramadan in the year 753." According to popular legend, the Sultan foresaw that her husband would murder her at Ramadan that year, and she ordered her own tombstone and wrote her own epitaph. I've also read that the mausoleum was built in 1375 by her husband the Shah's successor, Shah Shoja Mozaffari, who imprisoned her husband and conquered Esfahan, and that he built it "to honour [the Sultan's] bravery." (I knew none of this then.)
- The twin, cylindrical minarets (15 m.s tall) and the dome of the mausoleum are built in fine, yellow fired brick with interlocking geometric designs and Kufic inscriptions in lines of turquoise and azure glazed bricks and faience, but much missing from the pattern on the dome in 2000. I saw a tall portal topped by twin minarets, one broken and truncated, the other with a crown or 'girdle' near the top (as seen in this photo www.archnet.org/sites/1615 ). Both the broken minaret and the dome have been so well-restored with missing parts replaced since (as seen in photos on-line) that it's hard to believe they weren't entirely intact these past 700 years. The complex includes a large courtyard with a fine eivan that leads to the tomb.
- youtu.be/UgrB3XPLxgk?si=tP0nNDfC1RPTw77Z
- I was taken on a tour through the back-streets and alleyways in neighborhoods just west of the Jame mosque (although all these many years I thought we drove north of the mosque) on the back of the seat of a motorbike (see my write-up for my photo taken at the Jame mosque) on which I saw a photogenic, new mosque (I've read that the number of mosques in Iran has increased from @ 25,000 in 1979 to @ 75,000 today) with a large, onion dome above a tall drum with tall windows, not yet tiled, and the dome of this old tomb with the truncated minarets, and either asked to stop to tour it or returned to it later. (I looked [and looked] for these needles in a haystack on google maps, but found the tomb and minarets while checking a list of sites in town in 'Persian Cities'.) Many old houses with ancient balconies and courtyards with elaborate porches or talars, incl. many old fixer-uppers, were seen on that tour too. Impressive interior walls and doors decorated with stucco were exposed in ruins here and there, including one beside that new mosque. I took a photo of an impressive wall of old windows made with stained glass and wooden panes in a ruined courtyard which has not only been restored since, it's now the 'Javaheri Historical House'. youtu.be/Z3Va46LyWEo?si=cZYv--Z4POHKvs9M
- This short video gives a good impression of the time capsuley quality of those old neighborhoods near the Jame mosque.: youtu.be/wHfsufNIZa0?si=WlEMEFOJ0mfonP5E
- The ATESHKADE (or ĀTAŠKADA)-ye ESFAHAN (Zoroastrian fire-temple): This ancient adobe complex, said to be that of a Sassanian Zoroastrian ateshkade (ātaškada), is perched atop a 105-m.-high hill @ 7 km.s west of town which affords good views back to the city and of the Zayandeh-rud. It was threatening to rain when I was there, and I took some good photos of structures at the top of the hill with the dark clouds behind. (I'll scan and upload one.)
- The complex includes the remains of a citadel consisting of @ 20 rooms or small bldg.s, several with the classic chartaq, 'four-arch' floor plan, characteristic of Sassanian fire-temples. (Wikipedia) The Arab historian Masudi visited the site in @ 1970, and "recorded [a] local tradition that the [temple] was converted from one of idol worship to fire worship by King Yustasf (aka Vishtaspa, the patron of Zoroaster) when he adopted the religion of the Magi." Since then, carbon-14 tests have revealed that the oldest elements of the temple (or fortress? whatever it was) date from the Elamite period (!).
- The most distinctive feature of the complex is a plain, adobe, circular tower atop the hill with one door and 7 windows. It "appears to have been a watch-tower" within which a fire served as a beacon, and may date to the Islamic period. It's been partly reconstructed in modern times. (Wikipedia) upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Atashgah_Isfa... According to a brochure, the complex is at 1,680 m.s above sea level and occupies an area of @ 36,000 m.s2.
- itto.org/iran/itemgallery/atashgah-zoroastrian-fire-templ...
- "The bldg.s [in the complex] were used by members of Esfahan's Isma'ili community in the 10th cent. to avoid tax collectors." I relate.
- I'd forgotten, but I wrote on the back of a photo that I walked the 7 or so clicks west to this site.
- After scrambling up to and @ the top and taking it all in, I headed east to the Manar Jomban (but missed a famous pigeon tower or 2 in the area).
- youtube.com/shorts/wy5991letwk?si=HuSQ0Nb4uoEOHzHl
- The MANAR JONBAN (Il-khanid, I337, and Safavid): A shrine built over the tomb of the early 14th cent. gnostic Amu Abdollah Karladani, @ 7 km.s west of the city centre, is known as Manar Jonban, 'Shaking Minarets'. Twin minarets stand at the corners of the roof of the 10 m. tall shrine with its single eivan. When one shakes one minaret from within at the top, causing it to wobble or sway back and forth, its twin does so as well at the same frequency. "Although by no means unique in this respect, these 'Shaking Minarets' are probably the most famous of their kind. The minarets [which at 7.5 m.s each aren't so tall,] probably date from the late Safavid period, while the tomb beneath them was built in the 14th cent." (LP) The Doppler effect seen here is a function of the use of light-weight materials in the construction of the minarets, their low height, their distance from one another, and the installation of wooden 'spreaders' in the upper and lower parts of the minarets. The architect designed them specifically for this effect. (That said, local legend has it that both minarets shake as Abu Abdollah shakes in his grave "with fury at being disturbed yet again.") I climbed up a flight of stairs to the roof, and then climbed up a minaret, shook it by leaning back and forth, causing it to sway, and observed its twin get into the act, so I can confirm the reports. (A visit here is a bit like a trip to 'Magnetic Hill' in Moncton on some level.) Tourists aren't permitted to climb up and mess with the minarets anymore, so the custodian puts on a demonstration 5 x a day.
- youtu.be/AJDatkvuXIo?si=Hod-O9Dbshu8jMKB
- I had a memorable exchange with a man in a mosque in Esfahan, and was about to include the mosque's name in the following account of the exchange (seeing as I'm writing this in 2024, 24 yr.s later), but I've thought better of it. I was looking around within it, taking in the details, as is my wont, and spoke briefly with a local man who suddenly and very kindly offered to help me to access a portion of it that was closed to the public at the time, about which I knew nothing. (This isn't to say that it wasn't closed to the public at all times in 2000, nor that it isn't closed to the public today. I wouldn't know.) He indicated that I should wait there for him and left for a few minutes. I later learned that he'd gone to look for the caretaker or custodian, the man with the keys, which I gathered from his limited English and his body-language as follows. When he returned he shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and made a gesture with one arm (his left I think) extended outwards and with the palm of his right hand facing up and positioned close to the crook in his left, outstretched arm, while pointing the thumb of his right hand a few times toward the space /b/ the 2nd and 3rd fingers of that hand and to the crook in his left arm. (See how a picture is worth a thousand words?) He was imitating the action of injecting a needle into his outstretched arm, and was efficiently and effectively communicating that the caretaker of this famous mosque was unavailable to admit me to the said wonderful but mysterious locked portion of it because he was SHOOTING UP! What the ...?! Wow. That's how bad the situation had become locally with the flood of opiates across the Afghan border only @ 900 km.s to the East. I'd heard that this had become a real problem for Iran, and I'd already come across a junkie's needles in an adobe hollow of sorts at Susa, and would later seem them at Tappe Sialk where some kids pointed some out in a similar spot, and then found them by the toilet in a mosque at Firouzabad a few weeks later. I shouldn't have been surprised. Milk from the seeds of poppies grown in the vast poppy fields of Afghanistan (which have grown in total area to that of Rhode Island) has been converted to opium and morphine since ancient times, and increasingly to heroin since the late 19th cent. Annual Afghani production rose from @ 100 tons in the 70s to 2,000 in 1990, the year of the "conclusion" of the C.I.A.'s 10 year 'secret war' against the Soviets with the Afghan Mujahideen, "Operation Cyclone", and to 4,600 tons by 1999. (The Taliban famously attempted to destroy or greatly reduce production in 2000, the year of this trip, and achieved "an almost overnight drop to 185 tons harvested [in 2001]", but that just wouldn't do, and the U.S. invaded later that year, very coincidentally, hot on the heels of 9-11.) Afghanistan is now said to be "the source of over 90% of all the world’s illicit opium." mronline.org/2021/06/29/geopolitics-profit-and-poppies-ho... I'd heard or read that Iranian authorities had made inquiries (to their credit) with Western governments in the late 90s as to how they might address and seek to reduce opiate abuse and mitigate the levels of addiction Iran was facing. I also heard or read that "if the mullahs have resorted to asking for help or advice from the West, you know the situation MUST be bad." I heard that the situation in the city of Kerman, further east (which I didn't visit) was especially bad. Someone, somewhere that trip told me that Afghani suppliers had been training camels to run supply routes while addicting them to heroin, for which they would book it back and forth across the desert in the west and SW for their fix, laden with heroin. And to think that I was in Esfahan less than a year before 9-11, the American invasion of Afghanistan, and the expansion of opiate production to unprecedented levels.
- Of course I hope that that caretaker or custodian managed to turn things around and overcome his addiction to one of the most powerfully addictive drugs out there (at least in 2000). It's not a habit you can maintain without losing control of your life, so I assume his employers or supervisors learned about his problem and that either he prevailed against it or was let go.
Two Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 buses that were originally new to London operations are pictured on Princes Street in Edinburgh with rather different roles now.
Leading the duo is McGill's Eastern Scottish operated Bright Bus Tours CKZ 35 - 2908 - Previously BF60 UUJ - Iain Murray - which had previously spent time in 2022 working for Xplore Dundee before becoming part of the Bright Bus fleet. It wears McGill's take on the Bright Bus orange livery which was only ever applied to the six of these that joined the operation.
Behind is Lothian Buses operated LXZ 5409 - 1024 - Previously BF60 VHR - still with all its roof present and working a service on route 4 towards Fairmilehead. It wears Lothian's Fleet Of The Future livery. So two buses with near-identical starts in life that turned into very different diverging career paths to then just end up seeing each other again anyway lol.
Date Taken: February 21st, 2024
Device Used: iPhone 12 Pro Max
Date Uploaded: October 31st, 2025
Upload Number: 1849
Interested in seeing some bus videos? You'll find buses both real and virtual on my YouTube channel, as well as other cool bus-themed stuff too! - www.youtube.com/@ZZ9sTransport
© ZZ9's Transport Photography (ZZ9 Productions). All Rights Reserved. Modification, redistribution, reuploading and the like is prohibited without prior written permission from myself.
Same as ususal with a few tweaks here and there...
-Vulcan supercar (Ebon and Primera versions shown)
-Valkyrie sports sedan
-ORC 2.0 performance truck.
Canon 5D Mark II Photos Tan Blond Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess! 24-105mm F/4 USM L Lens !
"Beauty will save the world." --Dostoevsky
Hello Flickr fans! Excited for my Los Angeles Landscape gallery show in December! Taking a break from finishing the HDR landscapes and finishing some goddesses for my 45surf surfline instead. :) The gallery artist statement will begin with something like:
"In every photograph you can see both where the photographer was standing and what they were thinking. So it is that this collection tells the story of my epic journey as no words ever could. And more importantly, I hope that it serves to guide and inspire you along a hero's journey of your own making, owning all the glorious rewards of the risks of your own taking." --Johnny Ranger McCoy
Back to the goddesses for the moment:
Canon 5D Mark II Photos of Pretty Blonde Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess with Blue Eyes! 24-105mm F/4 USM Lens ! She was tall, thin, fit--very, very fit--with amazing rock-hard abs and a toned, tall body! Long, long legs--long as the day! A classic socal California Beach Babe!
Epic video of the epic goddess, shot as the same time as the stills as is Johnny Ranger McCoy's lone-cowboy trademark technique:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y5lQiNQncA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OfcQ9KCy1Y
Join Johnny Ranger McCoy's Hero's Journey Mythology Goddesses facebook! www.facebook.com/45surfHerosJourneyMythology
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All the Best on Your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy & the HJM Goddesses! :)