Kashan
This city, which is situated in the margin of the central desert of
Iran, contains several sights and historical monuments. Vestiges found on Seelk hills, located
threekilometer distant from the town, indicate that this area was a home of prehistoric man.
Kashan Location:
Isfahan Province, 260 kilometers south of
Tehran, 105
kilometers from Qom
Pictures of Kashan
The favourite city of Shah Abbas, the seventeenth century ruler
responsible for the construction of many of Iran's greatest buildings.
Sites to visit include the enchanting Fin Garden with it natural
springs, the Agha Bozorg Mosque & School, and the beautiful house of the
merchant Boroujerdi.
Kashan is the first of the large oases along the Qom-Kerman
road which runs along the edge of the Great Desert. Its charm is
therefore mainly due to the contrast between the parched immensities of
the Kavir region and the greenery of the well-tended oasis, to the
lively atmosphere of this almost compulsory halt, the restful shade of
cupola- or vault - covered houses and the coolness of gardens made even
more pleasant by their water - fountains. The caravanserais near the
city are in ruins but Kashan's secular function remains.
Between Kashan and Fin, there is a mosque-mausoleum overlooked by
cypress-trees which serves as a dwelling-place for several families of
carpet-weavers. Nearby, a small museum contains a few fine long-beaked
vases, a speciality of ancient Kashi craftsmen which later became
popular throughout Persia.
"Aqa's School, (Madresa-e Aga), ninteenth Century"
In Kashan and in the neighboring towns of Ravand and Natanz, a
picturesque event draws large crowds each year during the month of
Moharram. The audience participates enthusiastically in the three
day-reconstitution of Hossein's "passion-play" as a great martyr of the
Shi'ite faith. The argument of this was written by a Kashi poet at the
end of the sixteenth century.
"The portal of Maydan's Mosque"
"The Soltani School ninteenth Century"
"Broujerdi House"
"Bagh-e Fin "
"Portal of the main portico and the wind towers of Borujerdi House"
Kashan's water-supply comes from a system of qanats which converge up on
the oasis. But the city also benefits from the presence of nearby of an
abundant spring which enabled King Shah Abbas the Great to create a
blooming garden in the suburb of Fin (6 km south). Bagh-e Fin has its
poetic appeal and gardeners are attempting to restore the luxuriance of
flower-beds overlooked by century-old cypress-trees.
NATANZ
Natanz is a small mountain town located forty-nine miles from Kashan one
of Isfahan cities, famed for it's bracing climate and fruit orchards.
Vulture mountain looms over the town, and local residents point in its
direction telling how the troops of Alexander killed the Achaemenian
King, Darius III, nearby. Many small shrines dot the mountain side like
the Shrine of Abdas-Samad as shown below. The elements in the present
complex date from 1304 with subsequent additions and restorations. The
lofty minaret is dated 1325. The pyramidal roof is over the tomb of the
Shaykh which is dated 1307
"Shrine of Abdas-Samad fourteenth century"
ABYANEH
Abyaneh, is one of Kashan's famous nearby village.
"A passageway at Abyaneh " |
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