It is one of the most magnificent palaces in Isfahan built as a palace for reception cum entertainment of foreign dignitaries
I was constantly bedazzled in Isfahan and Teheran.
All this is mirror and glass work while the inside is painted
The Chehel Sutun or Forty Pillars is a pavilion built by Shah Abbas Safvi II in 1647.
It stands in a garden with a long pool in the char bagh style. The shadow of the twenty pillars of the pavilion fall in the pooling such a way that they seem double : thus forty pillar pavilion
The chehel sutun palace in Isfahan, Iran has many frescoes painted on its wall.
The most famous is the one which shows welcome extended to the Mughal Emperor, Humayun by Shah Tahmasp. Humayun took refuge in Iran in 1544 after his defeat by Sher Shah Sufi.
What is interesting is that here the Mughal emperor is depicted as shorter in stature and darker in what seems a slightly inferior position to the Safavid Emperor.
If you notice while Humayun ”s attendants are standing the Persian attendants are seated.
After all the Persian Emperor had given refuge to a king who had lost his kingdom, however welcoming he may have been.
This in stark contrast to the same meeting shown in the illustrated Akbar nama
And for those who love paintings some glorious frescoes depicting the story of Shirin Khusro and Yusuf Zulaikha on its walls
