Chehel Sotoun Palace and Garden

🕰️When was it built?

Building began under Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty and Shah Abbas II completed it. The Hall of Mirrors, the columned terrace and the large pool were added when the complex was enlarged. An inscription found under plaster in 1948 gives the building the date 1057 AH (1647).

🏛️What was it built for?

The palace was used for ceremonies and receptions of the Safavid court. The central hall was reserved for foreign guests and envoys, and its murals show meetings between kings and historic battles.

👀What you will see

• The front of the terrace has eighteen wooden columns, and two more in its raised part bring the columns of the porch to twenty.
• The Hall of Mirrors is decorated with tiny inlaid mirrors next to tall full-length ones, so its surface is never uniform.
• The four central columns rest on bases shaped like stone lions, and carved lions also stand around the pool.
• The paintings on the terrace ceiling sit inside fine wooden frames with geometric shapes; look up at the ceiling as well as the murals.

💡Something interesting

The palace has twenty columns at its front, and their reflection in the pool is one explanation for the name, which means forty columns. Forty is also used in Persian to mean simply many. The garden was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011 as part of the Persian Garden listing.

🎒Good to know before you go