Aerial photos of Isfahan

Can I this week share some 1930s aerial photos of Iran from the Oriental Institute in Chicago – and juxtapose them with the Google Earth satellite images (still aerial of course, just from a little higher up!) that I used when identifying and double-checking locations for the stopping places along the thousand kilometre walk of Shah Abbas in 1601.

The Oriental Institute collection mainly focuses on pre-Islamic sites like Persepolis and Firuzabad; but it also has some photos of Isfahan, including some of the Safavid Maidan and its associated buildings.  In much of the rest of the world, you can tilt your Google Earth view to see the actual buildings from different sides, but since this doesn’t work for Isfahan, I was especially interested in the fascinating 1935 oblique views of Masjid-i Shah / Masjid-i Emam (click here and here).

These give you a better view than you can see on the ground, with all the surrounding buildings getting in the way, and are much more illuminating than the Google Earth equivalent, even though it is of course very useful (and great fun!) on Google Earth being able to zoom in and out and move around to see what’s next door.  For example, the Oriental Institute photo of the Maidan here cuts off most of Shah Abbas’ caravanserai (at left, at the opposite end of the Maidan to the Masjid-i Shah), while I could just electronically ‘ascend’ in Google Earth to include it all (and rotate the image shown here at right for easier comparison).

Although the Safavid caravanserais in Isfahan are now perhaps looking a little grubby; they were considered “magnificent” by Figueroa in 1618, with Pietro della Valle declaring them “even better furnished” than the beautifully symmetrical bazaars.

Of course, I couldn’t use Google Earth to help me identify the (now destroyed) Naqsh-i Jahan Palace in Isfahan, where Shah Abbas started his 1601 walk from.  However, it certainly helped later on, for example in fixing Ribat-i Qazi Imad in Bagherabad, rather than in the alternative location of Dombi (see the maps here and here).