“Ali Qapu” means “the Sublime Gate”. The palace began as a modest gateway to the royal gardens and grew, storey by storey, into a six-floor pavilion about 48 metres high. From here Shah Abbas and his successors received ambassadors and watched polo, parades and fireworks in the square below.
The highlight is the great terrace (talar), held up by eighteen slender wooden columns and crowned with an inlaid wooden ceiling. It offers the best view in Isfahan: the Shah Mosque to your right, Sheikh Lotfollah straight ahead and the mountains beyond the city on clear days.
Climb the narrow stairs to the top floor to find the music room, where the walls and ceiling are cut into hundreds of stucco niches shaped like vases and long-necked bottles. They were decorative — and are said to have softened the echo for musicians. Lower floors keep fragments of Safavid wall paintings of flowers, birds and courtly figures.
Highlights
- Terrace view over the whole square
- The stucco “music room” on the top floor
- Inlaid wooden ceiling of the talar
- Remains of Safavid wall paintings
Gallery
