Sea of Memories

Caspian Sea, Chaboksar, Gilan.

Isfanan the City of Light

This is the title of a book by the late professor B. A. Shirazi, and it's true. The great mosque of Isfahan, namely Masjid-e Jame' 'Abbasi or Masjid-e Shah is thirsty for light to come into it and brings life inside.Light as the giver of all life as the late architect, Louis I. Kahn said.

Soon to be blossoms

This is about small big things in our world.

They grow

These are young, fresh, and full of life, that's why they grow.

Reaching there

I was looking at the landscape when I noticed a woman passing. She was walking steadily and strong in a more or less fast pace and with short steps.
Suddenly I saw her again coming towards me in the winding road much sooner than I could expect... Now it's just a memory.

They are singing

Breeze

Breeze and waiting for the breeze ... that is nothing but the essence of love.
I had a very beautiful comment under my previous post (Waitnig for a breeze) which was a verse of a poem by Hafiz of Shiraz:
صبا ز منزل جانان گذر دريغ مدار
which can be translated into English as:
O' East Wind do not withdraw the home of the beloved
Here I well remember another couplet of the same poem:
به شکر آن که شکفتی به کام بخت ای گل
نسیم وصل ز مرغ سحر دریغ مدار
To thank your blossoming cheerfully, O' Flower
Do not withdraw the breeze of re-joining from the dawn-bird.

Standing out

Waiting

I have no idea why is that when I am browsing through my selected pictures for this blog, I go right to the pictures which have something to do with "waiting".
May be I am waiting for something, myself. Or may be it's because everywhere you can find something about waiting, looking forward to.
Can you stand or imagine a life without waiting? Yet most people run away from waiting.
The last two pictures where from Abarkouh and this is from the bazaar of Yazd.

Waiting for a breeze

Waiting for the rain

Playing with colors

Outside

We were outside but I thought that we were not together,
but I found that we are under the same sky, and together. I think that my friend knew it before me.

Dancing lightly

Have you ever seen a dancer as light as light? As swift as light? As elegant as light? As punctual as light? As careful as light? And as masterful as light?
Light dances so masterfully with all things that makes us dance with them too all by our heart.

... to the sky

"You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces: that is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: "This is beautiful. That is Architecture. Art enters in..." (Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture, 1923)

Simplicity

I have written on my profile that I am an architect. I wonder if I am a real one when I am in a place like this. This is not a pessimistic idea, because they make me understand that the secret lies inside us, no where oustside. See inside and you'll see the whole world, the whole, just a little more. This is architecture, see the world, the whole world, just a little more. Is it very simple? Is it very difficult?

The secret of red and green

I thought to continue my new start with Abarkooh.
Red and green, are they in contrast or harmony?
When it comes to life, it's all harmony, as if they came to life to be together, completeness, love.
The red rose and the green pine, they connect earth to sky, they let water take life, with respect, whitin the most delicate coach, i.e. water, from the lightness of the sky to the silence of earth. Together they open the space, everlasting new, always the same, eternal, concrete, world.
That's the secret of the rose.

New Beginning

Hi. Receiving a new message from a friend of mine (who is a great photographer) I thought to give it a new try again. For the new beginning I picked this one which was taken in Abarkooh Friday Mosque.
Very hopeful, the beautiful desert sky with the clouds flying by.

Chehel-Sotoon; painting detail

This is a partial view showing a detail of the painting in my previous post. Here you see Tahmasb I, the Safavid king of Iran in the 16th and Homayun, the Mogul king of India which came to Iran as a refugee.
The setting of the ceremony is a palace (which is now destroyed) in North-West of Iran in a city called after a Jewish prophet Qeidar-r-Nabi (Qeidar the Prophet).
The Iranian and Indian kingdoms were in good relationship at that time, so the Safavid king helped Homayun to gain back his kingdom.
The dancers and the musical instruments are all Iranian. 

Chehel-Sotoon; part of the ceiling

I hope that I haven't made you sick by posting too much of a the same subject.  

Chehel-Sotoon Interir

The painting shows Shah-Abbas II (the Safavid king) accepting the King of India in a formal ceremony. There are severl very fine paintings in this palace. 

Chehel-Sotoon Palace

An internal view of the palace which is now used as a museum. 

A world within the world

The great American architect, Louis Kahn, used to say that architecture is making a world within the world. That was going on my mind when taking this photo from a church in Isfahan.

Chehel-Sotoon Palace; Entrance Decoration

 

Chehel-Sotoon Palace [5]

Looking from the balcony to the garden, court, and pool. I forgot to write about the interesting story about the name of the building. The balcony has 20 columns which their reflection in the pool water creates 20 more columns, so one would see 40 columns when he is in the other side of the court. And the name of the building (Chehel-Sotoon) verbally means 40 columns.