Naqsh-e Jahan Square

Naqsh-e Jahan Square is in Isfahan, a city in Iran.

It is a very big open square. Tall buildings with shiny tiles stand all around it.

Naqsh-e Jahan Square lies in the center of Isfahan, a city on the main travel routes across central Iran. Its name means 'Image of the World'. It has also been called Meidan-e Shah, the Royal Square, and UNESCO lists it as Meidan Emam.

UNESCO calls it one of the largest city squares in the world. It is 560 meters long, about five and a half times the length of a 100-meter race, and 160 meters wide. That is unusual in Iran, where cities were usually built close together with few big open spaces.

The square lies in the center of Esfahan, on the main north–south and east–west routes across central Iran. Known as Naqsh-e Jahan ('Image of the World') and formerly as Meidan-e Shah, it is inscribed as Meidan Emam, Esfahan. UNESCO calls it one of the largest city squares in the world and an outstanding example of Iranian and Islamic architecture.

At 560 by 160 m, covering almost 9 ha, it is atypical of Iranian towns, which UNESCO describes as usually tightly laid out without sizeable open spaces except the courtyards of caravanserais. It was registered on Iran's national list of monuments as item no. 102 on 5 January 1932, and inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979 under criteria (i), (v) and (vi).

The buildings are covered with colorful tiles and paintings of flowers and trees.

One building has a high porch with thin wooden posts holding up its roof.

Every building around the square, even the shop arcades, is decorated with shiny glazed tiles and paintings, mostly of flowers, trees and vases.

The Ali Qapu pavilion has a high entrance 48 meters tall. On top is a covered terrace, called a talar, whose roof rests on 18 thin wooden columns. Its rooms are covered with paintings and largely open to the outside.

All the architectural elements, arcades included, are covered with enamelled ceramic tiles and paintings in which floral ornament dominates (flowering trees, vases, bouquets), alongside figurative scenes in the style of Riza-i Abbasi, head of Esfahan's school of painting under Shah Abbas.

Ali Qapu's high portal (48 m) is flanked by several stories of rooms and topped by a terrace (talar) shaded by a roof resting on 18 thin wooden columns; its apartments are completely decorated with paintings and largely open to the outside. UNESCO calls the Royal Mosque the most celebrated example of the colorful architecture that peaked in Iran under the Safavids.

In the photo, you see the long square full of trees and grass.

Far away is a blue dome. Mountains stand behind it.

The photo looks down the length of the square. On the left is the pale dome of the east mosque, far ahead is the Royal Mosque's entrance between two minarets with its blue dome, and on the right is the Ali Qapu pavilion with its columned terrace. Arcades line the sides, lawns, trees and a fountain fill the middle, and a road with cars runs across the front.

The square was once covered with sand. Today it is paved with stone, a pond sits in its center, and lawns were added in the 1990s.

The photograph looks south along the square: the east mosque's pale dome at the left edge, the Royal Mosque's portal and minarets with its blue dome at the far end, the Ali Qapu pavilion and its columned talar on the right, two-story arcades on both sides, and lawns, trees, a central fountain and a road with traffic in the foreground, with mountains on the horizon.

UNESCO notes that the once-sandy surface is now paved with stone, a pond was placed at the center, lawns were installed in the 1990s, and two entrances were added to the square's ranges. It lists threats from pressure for multi-story commercial and parking buildings in the buffer zone, road widening, growing numbers of tourists and fire, and has said the property needs a management plan.