Persia past and present; a book of travel and research, with more than two hundred illustrations and a map . y may know it only as a centre oftrade in rugs, or possibly as the scene of the Persian novel,Hajji Baha of Isfahan. The city lies in a level tract of country which extendsaround it for miles. Entrance to the town is made through amaze of walled vineyards and orchards, whose variety of colorresembles a Persian carpet. Mosques pierce the sky-line withtheir slender minarets, or rival the blue of heaven with theirturquoise domes; poplars and plane trees lend grace and colorto the scene; an
Persia past and present; a book of travel and research, with more than two hundred illustrations and a map . y may know it only as a centre oftrade in rugs, or possibly as the scene of the Persian novel,Hajji Baha of Isfahan. The city lies in a level tract of country which extendsaround it for miles. Entrance to the town is made through amaze of walled vineyards and orchards, whose variety of colorresembles a Persian carpet. Mosques pierce the sky-line withtheir slender minarets, or rival the blue of heaven with theirturquoise domes; poplars and plane trees lend grace and colorto the scene; and distant hills form a serrated background forthe picture. A peculiar feature of the landscape is the largenumber of pigeon-towers which line the sides of the road anddot the plain beyond. These turreted columbaries, which arebuilt of clay and brick and look like windmills that have losttheir arms and sails, provide shelter for myriads of pigeons and 262 •V \ -^^ 1 r„;-:--;-Aa. w^igyZ^H^a^.Ki^^.??.:- , =^ ± Flandins Sketch uf thk of the Isfahan Fire-Temple, with aPigeon-Tower in the Foreokound. Isfahan and the Bridge of Ali \ eudi Khan A PERSIAN DELHI 263 form a lucrative source of revenue to those who sell the drop-pings of the birds to be used as a fertilizer on the neighboringfields. In some respects Isfahan offers to the traveller who isattracted by the modern phases of Persia more objects of inter-est than any city of Iran. It may be true that the city has lostmuch of the splendor that distinguished it three hundred yearsago as the capital of Shah Abbas the Great, whose lavish hos-pitality to the foreigners that visited his court is described bythe early European travellers, Tavernier, Chardin, Sanson,Fryer, and Kaempfer. It is equally true that the city neverfully recovered from the blow that it suffered in the eighteenthcentury from the Afghan invasion, which lost for it its prestigeas capital and resulted in the transfer of the imperial seat toTeheran. Neverth
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondonmacmillancol
