e Ali Qapu was dotted with small palaces and pavilions. Shah Abbas also designed the Chahar Bagh, or ‘four gardens’ a long avenue which approached his grand capital. The Chahar Bagh passes over the Bridge of Thirty-three Arches, or Si-o Se Pol, a beautiful site that Shah Abbas particularly admired. Beside the Chahar Bagh, open archways led to further gardens and pavilions. There were the gardens of the Throne, the Nightingale, the Vineyard, The Mulberries, the Dervishes and so on. Some of these pavilions were coffee-houses, the area was always bustling with activity.In 1603, Abbas began the building of the Shaykh Lutfallah Mosque. The magnificent tile-work and Yazd marble steps of the entrance portal, and the restrained beauty of the dome attracted the interest of many. The interior of the Mosque is very balanced. The impact of the vast glowing room, heightened after passing from the glaring sunlight through a long gloomy passageway, is overwhelming. Outwardly the dome, both in form and color is peculiar. The form is broad and the color is not a flashy blue, but an unglazed beige. The arabesques are glazed white, turquoise and deep blue. Very skillful use has been made to contrast the glazed and unglazed tiles, which gives a glitter effect when the sunlight strikes its surface. The largest, most spectacular monument of Shah Abbas’sReign is the construction of the Royal Mosque, or Shah Mosque. The Mosque follows the typical Iranian plan- a central courtyard with an iwan, or vaulted hall open at one end, in the middle of each of its four sides a dome over the mihrab at the end of the qibla iwan. Abbas began work on this Mosque in 1613 after he had been ruling for 25 years already. Abbas worked his architects hard, and some of the construction was ill-prepared. The tiling of some sections of the Mosque was completed using cheaper, quicker techniques. The haft-rangi or seven color tile was used to quic...
