Chehel Sotoun Palace
Chehel Sotoun Palace was built around the 11th century AH in the center of gardens and complex buildings and palaces of the Safavid Empire. This palace was the place where the visitors and foreign ambassadors where greeted.
This palace was built in three stages. First stage: the main and large hall. Second stage: mirror hall and the rooms besides it. Third stage: the porch with 18 columns and a wooden roof. This palace is named Chehel Sotoun (forty columns) due to the numerous columns in the palace and the reflection of twenty columns in the water in the pool.
The paintings on the walls of this palace were done by the great Persian artist of the Safavid Era, Reza Abbasi. He had drawn Persian miniature paintings.
Four large paintings in the main chamber picture the battlefield and the formal gatherings thrown by Safavid kings. Two other paintings with similar themes hung in the middle were painted by Sadegh Naqash Bashi, a great painter of the Qajar Era. Unfortunately some of the paintings were destroyed during the reign of Zell-e Soltan. There can also be seen some beautiful poetry written on the columned porch done by Mohammad Saleh Esfahani. This building was burned during the beginning of the 12th century and was reconstructed during the reign of Shah Soltan Hossein Safavi.