Esfahan - Hotel Abbasi

- Guided tour -

Esfahan is known for its arts and crafts, as well as ornate mosque and shrines. It is also where "Gaz" comes from, a taffy like white candy filled with pistachios.

40 column palace: (more later) This shrine contained marvelous wall paintings and the government is in the process of preserving the ones destroyed after the revolution.

Mosques in the big square:

7 echoes: In one part of the shrine, our guide bent down and using a paper bill, thwaped his finger against it. The echo that responded was a thousand times louder than the original thwap. If he held the bill close to the ground, there were seven echoes. If a few feet higher, only six echoes. Even just rustling the paper caused a murmur of interlaced echoes. At this point of the tour there were many dozens of high-school age girls watching in awe (along with us). They were all from near the Pakistan boarder. I tried to get candid video, but they spotted the camera at a hundred yards and shied away.
If you look at the front cover of the book "Searching for Hassan", the marble stairway is in the same room, just a few feet from where we stood now.

Print block carpets in Bazaar: Our guide took us to a small shop where plain white cloth was turned into colorful prints. One man runs this production and working in "batch", he uses a carved wooden block to press color on to the white cloth. The base color is made from walnut husks and is a deep purple-black. So then, are this man's hands and brow deeply stained with this base. He stops as we arrive and chats, eventually describing his craft. His face is dominated by a grin-like smile; unshaven and missing a few teeth, he seems like a little boy engrossed in his favorite hobby.
I had though these were painted, but each step is simply another application of color using another carved wooden block. He is assisted by his two young nephews who display completed products for us to consider. it is a good show and I do not begrudge our guide who obviously receives a portion of any sale.

- On our own -

Hotel Abbasi: This is one of the most spectacular hotels in Iran. Its walls are modeled after one of the Shiraz mosques. We have many photographs to share and made many friends among the guests and staff.

Bazaar: This is craft bazaar with many craftsmen working their trade in the shaded and relatively cool protection. I recorded a full hour of the coppersmiths banging on their works. The syncopated rhythm - some deep and slow, some high-pitched and fast - was hypnotic. We purchased several items for gifts.