We went to Esfahan by bus. Iran has a great bus system and the ride was air-conditioned.
Everyone gets a pack filled with snacks and ZAM-ZAM the Coke of Iran!
Shaida was practicing to be the new Zam-Zam spokesperson!

Esfahan was one of our most favorite cities.
There were so many fabulous sites to see!

This is the Abbasi Hotel where we stayed. It was the most beautiful hotel I've ever been in!
The big bowl in the middle had a fish inside that Shireen loved to play with.

This is the courtyard of the Abbasi Hotel.
We had dinner in the courtyard restaurant 2 nights.

This is inside the Jameh Mosque. This mosque is like a museum of Islamic Architecture.
This section of the huge mosque shows styles dating back to the 11th Century. They were first built
with plain brown bricks and stone but still have fascinating arches.

Another section of the Jameh Mosque shows the wonderful tilework that mosques are famous for.
We saw scaffolding everywhere as Iran is working to restore these ancient monuments.

This site is very famous in Iran. It's called the Shaking Minarets.
If one person goes up to one of the minarets and shakes it, the other one will shake!

Ahmad went up and worked hard to shake it. We could feel the ground move beneath us
and could see the other minaret shaking a little bit.

We watched men dying Persian tablecloths the same way they've done it for ages.
After they've been printed on, they boil them to bring out the red color.
They rinse it in the nearby river and dry it in the sun. It was so hot out there!

Esfahan has seven famous bridges. We were fascinated with the architecture of this bridge.
The Khaju Bridge was built by Shah Abbas II in 1650. It can be used as a dam and
can regulate the flow of the water (As you can see, they are in a drought and there's no water!)

As you walk toward the bridge, in each arch, you can see a candle.
We were in awe of the architect that designed this bridge!!

This is called Chehel Soton Palace (Forty Column Palace)
If you count, there are 3 rows of six columns (18) and 2 in the very back which makes 20.
But if you look in the pond in front of the building, the reflection shows 40!

This is close up of the Forty Column entryway. There was a pond and cool
stone animals at the bottom of the pond columns.