By: Taban Khajehnassiri
Esfahan is half of the world! - The Esfahanis coined this description in the 16th century to express their city's grandeur.
I was there for The First Islamic Countries' Tourism Exhibition which was convened in Esfahan (Also Isfahan) 3-8 Oct. 2000. Yasna Travel & Tour Agency participated in the exhibition as one of the exhibitors from ITTO of Yazd Province. I was there to present Yasna's web site to people of Esfahan, to ensure them that in turn we have started to attract visitors from other countries for our Iran. Also I was there to study new opportunities for building up new web sites on the net to present once again and more and more our history and culture, to the peoples of the world, via the Internet.
There I was walking with friends in Naghshe Jahan Square, looking around, enjoying those beautiful mosques and exotic sights and also looking for some niches we thought maybe we could market them via the Internet. After all, I knew Esfahan, the city of history and the city of kindest people. Esfahan has been the capital of the province of Esfahan since about 900 years. The most famous Persian description of the city of Esfahan is that they say "Esfahan Nesf-e Jahan (Esfahan is half of the world!) - The Esfahanis coined this description in the 16th century to express their city's grandeur. I was thinking I can write about this city for hour and hours, I can take pictures from different locations for hours and hours, endlessly. Really, Esfahan is one of the finest art cities of the world. However, let me tell you that Esfahan has pleasant weather for most of the year.
I was walking and enjoying the sun above, I was thinking if I could just let people of the world know about this city on the net! I was writing this piece of article in my mind. Hey ... it is the main street, Chahar Bagh (The Four Gardens), Here we are ... it is Maidan-e Naqsh-e Jahan, twice as large as Moscow's Red Square, Esfahanis say, built in 1612 by Shah Abbas, and now it is called Imam Square. At the north end of the square, is the Royal Caravansary and Bazaar, and at the middle of the west side you can see the grear Palace of Ali Qapu (The seat of Government) and facing it across the square is the Mosque of Sheikh Lutfollah, suddenly I found myself inside, there were many tourists over there, listening to the descriptions the tour leader was delivering. I was thinking to myself, so many web sites we need to set up on the net to illustrate the beauty, we need lots of texts and pictures, even sound files to present the emotions one can feel while he or she is standing right over there in the middle of the main hall of the mosque. If I had enough time, I would surely write about Sio Seh pol (The Allahverdi Khan Bridge - The Bridge of Thirty-Three Arches), Khaju Bridge, Chehel Sotun Palace, Vank Cathedral in Julfa, Friday Mosque, Hasht Behesht Palace, Ateshgah and the Shahrestan Bridge for each we need more web sites to present the real beauty of Esfahan.
Yes, Esfahan is, half of the web, what I am writing about. Now, it is a pleasant memory. Our successful presentation during the exhibiton placed somehow at the background of our mind, however on the foreground, I always want to write about Esfahan. On a sunny Friday, at the Bazaar, a little child came to me, he was eight or nine years of age: "Are you here for the exhibition?" - he said, I said "Yes! what about you?" He smiled and said "I am here for the business" - showing me his hands full of little and colorful butterflies - "come and buy one of these metal butterflies", he continued. I said to myself, "This little man needs a web site too for his niches!" - Would you like to see Esfahan on the web, click here!
This article first published as the editorial of WWN January 13, 2001