Bazar-e Bozorg

Lonely Planet review

Esfahan's Bazar-e Bozorg links Imam Sq with the Jameh Mosque, 1.7km northeast. The bazaar's arched passageways are topped by a series of small domes, each with an aperture at its apex spilling shafts of light onto the commerce below. While the oldest parts of the bazaar, around the Jameh Mosque, are more than 1000 years old, most of what you see today was built during Shah Abbas' aggressive expansions in the early 1600s.

The bazaar is a maze of lanes, madrasehs, caravanserais and timcheh, arcaded centres of a single trade (eg carpet). It can be entered at dozens of points, but the main entrance is via the Qeysarieh Portal at the northern end of Imam Sq. The high gateway is decorated with tiles and, higher up, frescoes by the great Reza Abbasi depicting Shah Abbas' war with the Uzbeks. These paintings have deteriorated over the centuries and a slow restoration is continuing.

Industries tend to congregate in certain areas of the bazaar. Among the more prominent are the carpet sellers, off to the west. Trade is busiest in the mornings. Undoubtedly the best way to discover the bazaar is to just wander; if you get lost, ask anyone for Naqsh-e Jahan or the Masjed-e Jameh.