Pasargadae: The Oldest Persian Garden in The World

The Iranian desert. A high plateau surrounded by mountain peaks, dry and barren. Yet for thousands of years a sophisticated irrigation technology has defied the desert here and made it possible for world-famous gardens to flourish. They are the example and the pattern for the garden culture of the Islamic world. We would like to trace their origins in the desert and set out on a journey through the hot steps to these refreshingly green oases. We journey through the east of the Iranian high plateau. Empty step and bare rock formations are all that can be seen for hour after hour. Anyone who travels here soon begins to yearn for the sight of a little shade and greenery. Our destination is the desert city of Yazd. It is said that an altogether extraordinary garden can be found in this quite unexpected location. The desert wind in Yazd provides us with a highly intensive reception. Sand is everywhere, biting the eyes, grating between our teeth. It is no wonder that everything here is the color of sand. And apparently this is the way things have been for 5,000 years. Yazd is considered to be one of the most ancient cities in the world. But where can the gardens be found here? We need only follow the people of Yazd to get an immediate answer. The gate to Dawlat Abad Garden is the entrance to another world. Shade, water and fragrances are our reception here. This, then, is the place where the local people most enjoy spending their time. Many of the plants that flourish here are something of a surprise for guests from Europe, however, since they are not exactly what we would expect or imagine from a garden with World Cultural Heritage status. Numerous fruit trees, above all pomegranates, and wheat as the ground as a cover plant. In a Persian garden, utility is clearly a criterion of beauty. The single word in Farsi for the other side of the wall is pyriditsa, and this is the root origin of our word, paradise. The concept is readily understood. A garden behind a high wall is indeed a paradise. Water flows here in abundance. Where on earth can it come from? Here, in the middle of the desert. The water wheels in the garden lead us back out into the desert, to the water supply channels, known here as qanats. These are the underground tunnels that bring the water down from the mountains into the city. It is here that we meet Hossein Kol Alamad, who has been passionately interested in this irrigation system since his childhood. Dolatabad is irrigated by the Dolatabad canal. It was built 274 years ago. A number of vertical shafts were excavated in earlier times, starting from the mother spring at the foot of the mountain. These shafts were then linked from beneath by a channel, and that is how a qanat developed. Qanats take the water to where it is needed. They do not require any energy to do this. There have been qanats in Yazd for 3,000 years. We used to have about 275 qanat chains in Yazd. During the long dry periods, almost all the qanats dried up, and there are now only four or five qanat chains in Yazd. An access guidance system is frequently all that can be seen of the traditional infrastructure, since intensive maintenance work is needed to preserve the vaulted underground channels. The method for the process is still the same as it was 3,000 years ago. Only the instruments and tools used are different today. In earlier times, water bowls or water levels were used to adjust the gradient. Today, modern measurement instruments are used for calculating the gradient of the working surfaces, but otherwise everything is still the same. We return to the garden following the water flow of the qanats, and to another shining example of ecology at work. Dolat Abad has the highest traditional wind cooling tower, rising 34 meters from the ground. This historic air conditioner is extraordinarily simple in functionality. Wind blows into the opening at the top of the tower, while a reservoir below, provided with a constant supply of cool water from the qanats, cools the hot air as it drops downwards. The shafts for this are constructed so that only air can enter, but no sunlight. Cool air now wafts through the building, and the giant domed roof ensures that the indoor air is never close and sticky. In the past, it was possible to open the colorful glass windows by pushing them upwards, opening the room out into the garden. The colors not only have the effect of muting the fierce sunlight, but they are also said to repel insects. This would certainly seem to be true, since there were none around to bother us. In the midst of all this greenery, it is easy to forget that we are also in the center of the desert. At the end of each day, Dolat Abad is alive with young people, who come here to enjoy the cool of the evening. Public gardens in Iran are open until late in the evening, and they frequently also offer opportunities to drink a glass of tea, or eat a small snack in the green surroundings. Iran is in Central Asia, where it extends through several climatic zones, from the Caspian Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in the south. In the center of the country lies a city which commands a great supply of water, and as a consequence, also boasts numerous gardens. Away then to Isfahan, the river and oasis city. The river Zayandeh is the lifeline of Isfahan. The Siosey Pol Bridge is one of its landmarks. Water is in fact omnipresent in the city. Supply channels flow through every part of it, and create green oases. Broad tree-lined avenues provide shade for this city of two million people. The main access through the city today is the Shahabagh Avenue, which forms a right angle to the river at its lower end. This garden is a showcase of the green city of Isfahan. Its name, Shaykh al-Sotoun. Four hundred years ago, only a king of great wealth was able to afford such a garden. Water and shade from the sun represent a true luxury here, and Shaykh al-Sotoun flaunts a wealth of them both. In the center stands a koshk, a large and magnificent palace building. Entry was formally prohibited to ordinary people such as us, in this building where Shah Abbas II received his guests. Farshid Ibrahimpour, a historian from the University of Isfahan, told me how this all took place. The guests came here in their coaches, together with their servants up to the koshk, where they were received by the minister of the king, or sometimes by the king himself. Tenants of their place arranged by rank, with the royal family, the ministers and the guests seated at the king, followed by the people the guests had brought with them, then the executive officers, and finally the people who provided the entertainment, who were then a long way from the king. I think that's an interesting thing. This one piece will make 52 layers. Watch on mobile devices or the big screen. All for free. No subscription required. One can well imagine how Shah Abbas held court here, how the glittering jewelry was reflected immeasurably in the many mirrors, while the magnificence of the spread carpets created a fairytale setting. Shayhel Sotoun is still a showcase today. For us, it is one of the finest and best-maintained gardens in all Iran. It offers surprises, such as this newly planted avenue of mulberry trees. It is a rewarding experience here to let your eyes wander upwards on the column-like trunks of the old trees. We had expected to encounter more visitors in this garden, but at this time of year the Isfahanis have another favorite place that draws them all away. Their river. The banks of the river Zayandeh are something like the city park of Isfahan. Thousands of people spend their leisure time here and make use of every fine day. This is because an event occurs every June, which the Isfahanis do not like in the least. The river dries up completely, because the water is diverted to the desert city of Yazd. They relish every moment, because they know it is a pleasure that will soon be brought to an end. The famous bridges of Isfahan are favorite meeting places for young people who enjoy themselves here. They make music and flirt, like young people everywhere else in the world. The young people in particular are very self-confident, curious and open, and we Europeans notice none of the subtle rules of behavior that are a matter of course to Iranians. Apart from the mandatory headscarf, there are no limitations to our freedom of movement. In the evening, many Isfahanis go for a glass of tea in the garden of the Abbasi Hotel. For 300 years this was a trade route stopping place, a caravan sarai, until Shah Reza Pahlavi ordered its reconstruction as a modern hotel in the middle of the last century. The garden is a small remainder of what was once a giant facility measuring a thousand by a thousand meters. These dimensions were once common in Isfahan. The garden today is filled with guests until late in the night. Leisure and gardens are intimately intertwined in Iran. How did this garden culture begin? What are its origins? We begin our journey once more, and it is now a journey through time. We travel to Pasar Gardi, the oldest garden in the world. And once again, our route takes us through the desert. We have all become silent and almost reverential in this magical location. The light green color of this high plateau that is still remote today helps us to understand at once why Cyrus the Great, ruler of the Achaemenid Empire, chose this site as his seat of government 2,500 years ago and built the first royal city of Persia. The inscription reads, I am Cyrus the Great, king of the Achaemenids. These water channels were discovered a few years ago, directly adjacent to the royal palace, where archaeologists have now secured what is left of the ruins. Ali Taghawi is in charge of the archaeological site. Herodotus wrote of how he had seen the tomb of Cyrus, surrounded by a great many trees. This shows that the Pasar Gard garden must have consisted not only of the royal palace gardens, there must have been many other gardens in the surroundings, and the entire 249 hectare area was covered with trees and plants. This is the surprise that Persia springs on us. The geometry of the water channels, which we understand as the Islamic garden principle, was in fact invented 1,000 years before Muhammad, and it had its origins here in Pasar Gardi. As far as we have been able to establish, the irrigation channels were 1,100 metres long and made from stone. This very cleanly cut stone is from the sea van 9. A small shaft is placed every 9 to 13 metres, and this configuration is repeated continuously and rhythmically as channel and shaft, channel and shaft. We set off to a water garden destination, with the Pasar Gardi water channels in our heads. But the longer the journey lasts, the more absurd the whole idea appears to us. Someone who had not first seen the dusty grey of the locality would scarcely be able to either enjoy or to understand Baghaifin. Travel through the desert was the reason why this garden was established, since the site is on an old trade route. The king used the garden as a stopping place whenever he was travelling. The origins of the garden date back over 400 years, and today, as then, the main element here is water. The entire area is traversed by a network of pools and small channels. Two main channels divide the garden vertically, and each one leads to a pavilion. One channel runs parallel to the surrounding garden wall. It must have been exactly like this in the beginning. 400 years ago, the king alone had access to the pavilion water pools, where the tourists splash today. The Islamic world adopted its handling of water from the Persians, using the techniques for its gardens. The descriptions of gardens in the Quran refer back to the pre-Islamic gardens of Persia. Water has a powerful symbolic and spiritual significance in Persian culture. In a Persian garden, water is never permitted to stand still. It must create sounds of various kinds, and these are as varied as life itself. Hamid Reza Jahani has been busy in the garden for a great many years. He has spent thousands of hours here, and he has summarized the personal experience he acquired for us. The European gardens are some landscape to see them, watch them. But the Persian gardens are some space to live into, to live inside them. It's the major difference between Persian garden and European garden. This garden, it's an element of a system. The water line or the water access connected this system. Mountain, garden, farms, other gardens, and the deserts. Cypresses were originally planted along the paths. The areas between the paths and the channels were kept free for tents, pitched to house the followers of the king. Some of the trees here still date back to the time when the garden was first established, and today they are awe-inspiring giants, 370 to 450 years old. The layout of the garden has remained original, but with a lot of destruction. For example, in recent decades, the garden was destructed because a lot of trees dried and fell, and new trees have been planted out of the planting system of the garden. One learns quickly in Iran that there is a pavilion in every Persian garden. But very few are like this one, fully open to the garden and so richly adorned with paintings. Every child in Iran knows these ornaments and patterns. They decorate enamel plates and porcelain, cloth and the walls of rooms. The obsession Persians have with decoration extends to everything in life, including their gardens. Bage Fin is also in the center of a dry and dusty region. The water comes from the mountains, which are visible from afar on fine days. Once again, it is canats that bring the water here. Wood beds covered with carpets are provided for us garden visitors beside the cool water. It is easy to forget, when sipping tea here, that the desert is only a stone's throw away. Once again, it is the adobe walls that turn the garden into a fortress against sand, storms and wild animals. Into a paradise, in fact. Beautiful gardens cost money. Where does this come from? The city of Kashan is close by, and we are very curious about it, because it was once a hub intersection on the Silk Road. Will we find anything left that recalls this period of splendor? A walk through the bazaar is a sobering experience. It has certainly seen better times. The Caravan Sarai was once in the center here. This was where the merchants would store their valuable carpets. Now robbed of its former significance, the Caravan Sarai today is a place that makes one a little melancholy. The merchants were once rich and powerful people, and they could afford to build not only the vaulted ceilings in the bazaar, but also beautiful private homes. It is said that a few of these also have truly beautiful courtyard gardens. Facades in Iran are always simple in style, and this increases the surprise about what is hidden within. The proprietor, Mahin Raheb, enjoys this pool every day. My nephews, nieces and cousins and I all grew up here. I learned to swim in this pool. All the pools open up into the inner courtyard. Mahin Raheb lived here formerly with her family. She had the frescoes on the walls restored for love of her delightful childhood memories. My grandfather tied a rope around us. There were no rubber rings available then, and he said, swim. My grandmother scolded when we swam. You will kill the fish. We didn't listen to her and carried on. We did our own thing. The bazaarees are important people in Iran, but it is the poets who are the true heroes. In Persia, gardens and poetry belong together. We now travel south, to the city of gardens and poets, to Shiraz. The 14th century poet Hafiz is considered to be a national saint. It is said that the garden was his favourite place, and that is where he has remained. His tomb is in the centre of the Musalla Gardens. The alabaster sarcophagus has the following inscription. When you guide your steps to my tomb, be sure to bring wine and a lute with you, so that I may rise again dancing. The joy in life the poet Hafiz took and expressed for eternity in his verses over 600 years ago is now a welcome retreat from the strict regime of the mullahs, who currently have a say in the running of the country. They prohibit women from singing or dancing in public, but they are allowed to work hard. Over 70% of Iranian graduates are women. Masa Astanay is a lawyer, and she regularly visits her Hafiz, as she puts it, to read his poems. It was about the whole beauty of the world, and actually, Hafiz said that we must pray to God because of creating these beauties. It is a very good place to gather together and read out loud the poems and have a very good time with each other. This is a place that also has the function of an oracle. Young people come here with a question in mind and open the book at random. The page and the poem found by chance provide the answer they are looking for. It is both relaxed and celebratory, and the later it gets, the more cheerful things become. The Musalla Gardens, a poetry slam in Persian. An entry charge is made for the public gardens in Iran, and they are evidently well worth the money for the inhabitants of Shiraz. People come to the Erem Garden not only for pleasure, but also to learn something. It belongs to the university as a botanical garden. Conifers from all parts of the world, tall pines, palms and orange trees are gathered together on this well-cared-for terrain. This is a mixture that can only flourish in this especially mild climate here. There is no clear historical evidence for the exact origins of the gardens, but it is known that they were renovated and re-established in the 18th century. It is thought, however, that the geometrical division provided by the water channels dates back a few centuries earlier. Young people like to use the green background here for posing. After all, Facebook is also used in Iran. The clothing regulations in Iran do not allow much bare skin to be shown. Everything must be covered, apart from the hands, the feet and the face. Girls must wear a headscarf at the latest by the age of 12. Women's hair should, yes, should, disappear under a headscarf in Iran. Orange trees, an accurately trimmed hedge along a watercourse, useful and the beautiful, belong together in a Persian garden. On a richly adorned facade, we find a metaphor that is encountered everywhere in Iran. It concerns Nafruz, the Iranian New Year. The old year is pushed out of the way by the new one. Poetry and the art of gardening are twins here in this city, and the walls are decorated with poems by Hafiz, the celebrated poet of Shiraz, in elegant calligraphy. Now, as the garden air wafts about me like a hint of paradise, I rejoice in the wine that the dearest of eyes is again smiling upon me. Unfortunately, there is no wine to rejoice with in Shiraz any longer. Alcohol is strictly prohibited, but there are careful tended green areas instead. Any self-respecting Persian city presents itself with its gardens. In the Shiraz Grand Bazaar, one item is available in total abundance. The carpet. They are produced here in this area, and every family owns dozens of them. Persians not only walk on their carpets, they also live with and on them. We are interested in finding out if there are any carpets with garden designs, and also where these are produced. With this in mind, we set out on our travels once again. A journey in the direction of the Zagros Mountains is also a journey to the Zagros sheep. Their wool is ideal for carpet making because it is robust and resistant, while also soft and supple. Nomads have lived here with their herds on this high plateau at 2,200 meters since time immemorial, and they still knot their carpets — different ones than they used to, but still using the same wool. They make garden carpets, and do so in a landscape in which no gardens are to be found far and wide. They all have their origins in the minds and imaginations of the makers. Knotting carpets is good work as the nomadic women see it, because they can keep their children with them as they do it. The Kashkai have now settled permanently. The tents are only used for knotting their carpets. They are descendants of the nomadic Turkmen people, and speak both Kashkai and Persian. Some 15,000 women carpet makers work on the high plateau for the Iranian distribution company that has branches around the globe. The technique and the devices they use are identical to those employed centuries ago. The greater the carpet density, the higher the quality. The waiting time for an ordered carpet is several months, because this is the time the Kashkai women need to finish a single carpet. We will walk on carpets with a great deal more respect in future, and always think as we do so about the wide empty spaces of this high plateau. We travel to Isfahan once again, the city after which a famous rose variety is also named. A real rose garden, this is what we still want to find. Back in Isfahan, on Imam Square. One of the largest public squares in the world, with its sides measuring 500 and 165 meters. The Great Mosque holds every gaze at first, but it is in fact only one element of a harmonious whole. Religion, business and secular government, these are the three factors that together and in harmony make a flourishing city possible. This, at all events, was the opinion of Shah Abbas, who had this square laid out and constructed at the end of the 16th century. It comprises a mosque, the royal palace, and that lifeline of the city, the bazaar. The Bazaris were powerful people in earlier times. Political decisions could not be reached without their blessing. Isfahan is famous for its craftspeople. The pictures produced by the tinsmiths with their flower ornamentation are popular decorative items for walls. This green oasis can be found directly behind Imam Square. Dealers in antiques and jewelry are arrayed around the cooling pool and beneath the shady trees. Finding printed fabrics in Isfahan, with designs and also the flowers that can be found in all the gardens here, appeared to us to be a simple matter of course following our garden journey around Iran. The way Iranians create a new public garden today can be seen in Bagh Eghola. The name simply means flower garden. Water is of course also important in this modern garden, together with the symmetrical axis in the center. Gardens and joy in life are one and the same thing. They are the places where people have always gone to celebrate, to drink, or to make music. Even the religious police are powerless in the face of this tradition. All historic styles are gathered together in a garden. There are no historic specifications on which to hold fast. Everything of beauty is permitted. The proximity to the river allows intensive irrigation, even for the flower borders, which are unusual in Iran. Roses at long last. We had searched for them in vain in a great many gardens. Turn to the river at the conclusion of our journey. Persians love to be out of doors, in a green garden setting, and to eat and drink there. This is where they meet their friends, arranging in advance who will bring what dishes and who will supply the tea. It is generally drunk very sweet, and in glasses, so its fine color can be seen and admired. Paria Tavakoli will sing for us, although she is not really allowed to do this in public. Masom, masom, masom, tighet borideh shasom Ya berim shaye cherag, shaye cherag Ahti be bandim, ahti be bandim Bar kudum aht beshkanim, aht beshkanim Kemar na bandim, kemar na bandim Masom, masom, masom, tighet borideh shasom We take our leave from Persia and its gardens to the sound of a love song sung by Paria. We take with us the experience that paradise is not in heaven, but it is rather a green retreat for recreation and conviviality in the middle of the desert.