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Persia. Thousand and One Marvellous Instants
Sezione 1
Sezione 2
Shiraz, Eram Garden
Cyrus "the Younger". 5th century BC
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Persian gardens
originated around 4000 BC,
but the tradition began with the Achaemenid dynasty, around the 6th century BC. The oldest Persian garden of which we have memory belonged to Cyrus the Great, in his capital Pasargade, in the province of Fars, north of Shiraz. Filled with cypress, pomegranate and cherry trees, the garden had a geometric layout and streams of water between the stones.
These streams formed both the main and secondary axis of the main garden of Pasargade, prefiguring a quadruple design. Even when Cyrus 'the Great' died, his tomb was surrounded by a grove of irrigated trees. Moreover, I myself had made arrangements for the park, which I called 'my paradise', in Sardis,
capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia. One of the most important aspects of these 'paradise' gardens was water, with ponds, canals, streams and fountains, all sharing common features. Perfume was also an essential element, coming from the fruit trees and flowers, selected for their fragrance. The Eram Garden was a historic Persian garden in Shiraz;
both the building and the garden were built in the mid-thirteenth century by the paramount chief of the Qashqai tribe of Parsis. The original layout of the garden, however, with its quadripartite structure, was laid out in the 11th century and was later placed in Bāgh-e Shāh, or 'The Emperor's Garden'.
Sezione 3
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