ChehelSoton

ChehelSoton garden or 40 pillars garden, is a pavilion which named in Persian language , Kooshk , is ad vast beautiful and unique garden in middle of Isfahan city, it surrounded like other Persian gardens by thick and tall walls, In 16th century it is ordered to construct by “Shah Abbas” the second, but through the 400 history of its life changed and southings added to the main building. Now you can visit this garden and the main building as a museum palace and enjoy the hot summers of Isfahan. It is tranquil and it is like a piece of gem not only in Isfahan but the whole country.

Why Chehel Sotoon or Forty pillars?

Actually in front of the main building there is a very long and shallow pool filled by fresh water, clear enough to reflect the image of 20 pillars setup in front of the main building, by adding 20 pillars to their reflection you will find 40 pillars so they named the main building Chehel means forty, and Sotoon means pillar. by adding to phrases you will find the name of Chehel Sotoon palace.  

The real story of Chehel Soton

In fact, the number forty in our culture is the mass number, we have many names that are combined by number forty to exaggerate the amount or number of something. For instance, when there are few people in a place in local news they say around 40 people gathered together. Or when some birds are flying in a garden we say 40 birds are flying. By this hypothesis you can understand why we call this palace, Chehel Sotoon palace.
The pillars of this palace are made from wood. It is interesting how they transported those tall pillars around 400 years ago. Iran is a very hot and dry land, most of the country is deserted and Isfahan is not an exception. Even there was a river in the middle of city and cut the city in two parts, but the climate is dry and hot, especially in summers the city is too hot to bile the head of people but the river Zayandeh Rood makes the weather more pleasant, it is just a remedy just to moderate the weather. Because of this hot land you cannot find long and thick lumber to use as the pillars in ChehelSotoon palace. from very old times most of the pillars are made from stone. Just around Caspian Sea you can find tall and huge trees to make lumbers tall enough to use as tall pillars but in old times there was not cars and trucks to transport to other part of country, because of it the wooden pillars are scarce and just in some very wealthy places like chehel sotoon palace you can find this kind of pillars.