ESFAHAN 14.07.2010

ESFAHAN 14.07.2010

The train departed from station at 22:50.   Including me, we were six altogether in one compartment.   I do not remember any of them. They didn't speak Turkish;  I didn't  speak English. I preferred to sleep early.   These guys were yelling to me, "Hey, Mister!"  speaking  from downstairs while I was lying over the bunk . I didn’t mind them. I had slept until morning. The train arrived to Esfahan station early in the morning.   I saw the first fresh lights of the sun under blue sky which was amazing. The weather was quite dry and fresh.

As is usual everywhere, the taxi drivers were waiting to take a couple of passengers going to city center.  I waited for the public bus like the majority of the passengers. We all got off the bus together  in Siosepol at the  Bridge of  Esfahan entrance. I met Ali Parsa there, while I was looking around  asking for directions  to Imam square.  Ali said that he had worked in Istanbul before. He was speaking good Turkish, I don’t  recall whether Ali  was an Azerbaijani Turk or not.

Ali and I  walked on the granite sidewalk up to İmam square . With the first glance,  you would be able to understand  that Esfahan deserved the famous  rhymed  sentence about itself.

"Esfahan nısf -ı  Cihan !" "Esfahan , the half of the world!" If you  haven’t  seen Esfahan , it means that you  have not seen half of the world.. Tabriz people say about Esfahan that "if you have not been to Tabriz". 

Esfahan was a capital of The Great Seljuk Turk state and Safavid State.  Both of them Turkish states in  history.  One has to remember  that Ottoman and Safavid states fought against each other many times.

 Before we left, I took a photo together with  Ali in front of Square.  Firstly, I should have left my  bag in the hotel. There was a recommendation for a hostel in the guide book of Zafer Bozkaya. I found Amir Kabir Hostel in Cahr-Tagh ( four way intersection) . The hostel  is preferred  by  backpackers . İt was a surprise to see  Andre and Paul, my friends from the train compartment there . They had come yet.    We shared a room which cost 8 dollars per night.  There was a communal  bathroom  outside  the  room. I had a breakfast in the hostel which cost 2,5 dollars.

I went to İmam Square again early in the morning only a few other people were there.  There would be crowds in the evening.  The shops surrounding the square were closed at midday  for 3-4 hours due to the extreme heat.  In the evening the shops were open again.

We sat on the stone in front of Ali Qapu Palace.  İt was a little cooler there when compared to the open field.   I met with  one middle age man named Hussein.

Hussein said  he had been a lorry driver before.  He had not worked for a while.  He tried to communicate with me in a little bit of English.  It was very interesting and in spite of the language difficulty, we got to understand each other.  I mentioned to him  about the Zourkhaneh rıtuals  that I would like to see   and told him that I had not encountered this traditional sport in Tabriz or Tehran. This sport is practised in a gymnasium called Zourkhaneh.   The Zoorkhanei ritual is a traditional Iranian martial art. According to him these kinds of places for  performing  the ritual were closed and there are just a few of them in İran. One of them was in Esfahan. He proposed  to me that if I would like to see it, we could meet in that evening to go there.  I was really glad to hear that I would be able to see it. Hussein also  added some information  regarding the visit.  A payment of about  4-5 dollars was required by each of us  for the rhythm chef  of Zoorkhaneh. I accepted this suggestion as it was affordable. We left to meet again.  We would  meet  at 20:30  in the same place .

There was enough free time until we would meet again. I went to visit Chehel Sotoun, a pavilion in the middle of a park at the far end of a long pool, in Isfahan, Iran. It was built by Shah Abbas II to be used for his entertainment and reception. İts name  means "Forty Columns" in Persian.

The water of pool was very green. I understood that there was no  cleaning system ,which resulted in some bacteria growing due to the sunlight on the stagnant water.

I should mention  its wooden columns. You can see only twenty wooden columns at the entrance of the building.  The other twenty columns are mirrored images on the water of the  pool ... You are welcome in the east...

There many pictures on the walls in this Palace. One of them relates to the Ottoman and Safavid War.  The Çaldıran war picture’s  size is 6x6 m and was made in 18th century.  The Ottoman and Safevid armies fought in 1514 in Çaldıran plain that is close to Makhu city in Iran .  The Ottoman army won  this war. İf you are defeated in the war, do you want to capture that moment  in the form of  a picture?  One needs to understand the meaning of this war ın term of Shia Safevids. Both of them were rivals in the same geographical zone.   Perhaps due to being a rival, Safevids adopted Shia secth, and  a lot of Turkish tribes supported them in the East Anatolia. The most important thing, in Shia mental world, were imagined some as parallel  between Karbala events and Çaldıran war.  Ottoman armies were more of a crowd and had some firearms like  cannons.

 You can view many pictures there; each one depicting a different historical event.  I encountered a PhD Thesis about Forty Column Pavillion’s pictures.

It was very interesting to  know that was  a Turkish  state in south Asia and that Ottoman Turks  fought them so many times.

After visiting Forty Column Pavilion I went to Siosepol Bridge on foot . There was a large sidewalk  in the middle  of the main street . It is  good planning . Siosepol Bridge was quite close to the city center. The bridge takes its name from the  33 piece arch. Zayende-Rud river runs under Siosepol Bridge .  Siosepol  is one of six bridges over Zayende river .  I walked toward the water  under the bridge to wet my feet. Already the river water was rising just up to my ankle. I waded  in Zayende river,  crossed to other he side and  came back  again. There was a tea house where people meet to drink tea. Why didn't I drink a glass tea there? I still ask myself.

Toward the evening, I came back to İmam square to meet with Hussein. The square was filled with crowds and cars. The lamps had started to brighten. I sat on the pillows of a cafe that gave me a good view of the  square.  I drank a glass  of tea while waiting for Hussein..

 Finally, Hussein came to  our meeting place and we went to Zoorkhaneh.  Zoorkhaneh is a kind  of training club in a hall for wrestlers.   They usually consist of artisan members. When we arrived, there were a few men present . Hussein said that they usually came in after  the night  prayer. After  a while, the team was complete . Meanwhile the rhythm chief  heat his percussion  leather by the electricity heater and sat on the high place in the hall.  When Rhythm chief started to play,  wrestlers began to rotate their  pins/Indian Clubs over their heads.  The walls of the hall were covered with a lot of  photos showing mighty men.  The pictures  were of  former wrestlers.  It was  very clear that this hall  was a  club sport with the only difference being that the  chief was saying a prayer ...

After the wrestlers exercised, we thanked the Chief and gave him five dollars.  I went to the Amir Kabir Hostel on foot as it was  not far away from Zoorkhaneh.   At the end of the first day in Esfahan my mind was filled with interesting  images ...