Cities · a Light

Isfahan was rebuilt around a square used for polo

In 1598 Shah Abbas I moved the Safavid capital to Isfahan and had a new centre laid out beside the old city: a rectangular open space about 160 metres by 500, with a mosque at one end, a bazaar entrance at the other, a palace pavilion on one side and a smaller mosque on the other. It was a market, a parade ground and a polo field, and the stone goalposts are still in place at each end. Its name, Naqsh-e Jahan, means image of the world. Armenian craftsmen and merchants were resettled in a quarter across the river with their own churches. The square is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and people still picnic on it.

Shah Abbas I · Isfahan, 1598 CE