First Phase of Naghsh-e Jahan Museum to Open Next Year

22 January 2005

The first phase of the grand museum of Naghsh-e Jahan in the world-famous city of Isfahan, will be inaugurated by mid next year.

The museum will be set up in the second-storey rooms located around the Naghsh-e Jahan Square (Meydan Shah), between the two historical mosques of the city, the Mosque of Shah, and the Sheikh Lotf Ollah, announced head of the Culture and Museums Department of Isfahan, Ahmad Adib.

Restoration of the rooms is reaching an end and after the type of the museum objects and their decoration style are determined, the rooms will be turned into the first part of the grand museum of Isfahan, to be inaugurated by mid next year, Adib told CHN.

Old rooms all around the historical square of Naghsh-e Jahan have undergone restoration since 1996 so that they can be used for new purposes. The second-storey rooms were previously used as caravanserais and trade houses during the Safavid and Qajar eras, but were desolated near the end of Qajar dynasty and at the beginning of the Pahlavi, gradually getting ruined.

The restoration team removed the debris, made light the roof of the first storeys of the buildings, then rebuilt the collapsed parts, and now are busy restoring the decorations and reinforcing different parts of the rooms.

Adib believes that since the museum will include features such as traditional arts, items representing natural attractions, and archeological remains from all around the the province of Isfahan, it is of great importance for the proper introduction of the province to Iranian and foreign tourists.

The title of the museum “Naghsh-e Jahan” is taken from the name of the famous square where it is to be set up. Naghsh-e Jahan Square was built in a vast beautiful garden during the Safavids and with the construction of great religious and imperial buildings there by order of Shah Abbas the Great and its development during the years, it turned into one of the most important attractions of the city called today “Half the world”.

Naghsh-e Jahan Square was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1978.

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