In the centre of Isfahan, Naqsh-e Jahan brings a mosque, a palace and a market into the same monumental composition. Its name, often rendered as “Image of the World”, suits an urban project conceived to make Safavid power visible. This heritage account comes with an essential present-day distinction: the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advised against all travel to Iran in guidance updated on 27 October 2026 and checked on 29 October. The square’s cultural importance is not a recommendation to travel under that warning.
Shah Abbas I developed the ensemble in the early seventeenth century, when Isfahan was the Safavid capital. Also known as Meidan Emam and formerly Meidan-e Shah, the square assembled the principal institutions of royal life around an unusually large open space. In a region where historic cities commonly developed through tightly packed streets and enclosed courtyards, this vast public rectangle expressed another idea: architecture could arrange the relationships between ruler, worshippers, traders and spectators in a single comprehensible setting.