Esfahan Caravanserai

The city of Esfahan’s grand Safavid-era caravanserai is now the famed hotel Abbasi, where a plastered wall is encrusted with aqua-mirrored cast glass flowers among black painted birds and leaves. In stark contrast to the drab dress of today’s Iran, a splendid lady in a pearl hat from a Qajar dynasty painting is reworked in mosaic. This glorious and colorful past is now a museum artifact.

Photo credit: Jessica Marcotte