Story & photos by Bernard Joseph Esposo Guerrero
While different civilizations and cultures developed their own interpretations of gardens, one should wonder where the concept of a garden originated.
The Bible containsthe earliest-mentioned garden, the Garden of Eden, which is believed to have flourished near present-day Tabriz in Iran. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in Iraq, are also too legendary—so much so that they, too, cannot really be ascertained if and where they existed.
What is clear, however, is that the ancient Persians were the earliest people to develop a tradition of planned gardening. Here, I am referring to the famed Persian gardens whose timeless charm and balance influenced other gardening traditions later on such as those of the Mughals and the Moors. What makes them more impressive, moreover, is that the remains of first Persian garden constructed still exist today. The word “paradise,” in fact, came from pairideiza, an old Iranian word meaning “walled garden.”
A Persian garden is simple in style. It follows the “Charbagh” layout, dividing the property into four sections, and is characterized by a great mastery in the use and control of water sourced from several miles away. In our trip to Iran in 2017, we managed to see three outstanding examples of this thousand-year old heritage.
The garden at Pasargadae
The earliest known Persian garden was the one that was built in Pasargadae, Persia’s first capital, around 500 BC. The glory of the former city is a bit hard to grasp as it is largely in ruins. The garden, as with most structures, is, therefore, already an archaeological site. Here, only the remains of the stone layout, watercourses and several fountain pools are visible.The river that once cut through the city used to supply the water needed in the garden via canals. This garden was the realization of Cyrus the Great’s desire to recreate paradise on Earth.
With the relics available on site, one can, however, only re-imagine how the garden might have looked like back in its heyday—a very unpopular activity that I still find excitement and satisfaction in doing. Indeed, no other tourist paid any attention or interest in the ruins of the garden. This is despite the fact that the garden is a very interesting case: While the garden is a Unesco World Heritage Site in its own right, it is located inside yet another WHS. Pasargadae is also included in the prestigious list as a testimony to the first capital of a true global empire. The recognition given to the ruins of the Persian garden in Pasargadae is an unambiguous nod to the provenance of the Persian garden tradition that is still widely being practiced today.
The oldest extant Persian garden
There is a 2,000-year gap between the first Persian garden and the oldest surviving one of its kind. Visiting the attractive Fin Garden in the desert city of Kashan on a Friday was like visiting an amusement park on a Sunday back at home: It was packed with weekendgoers. Despite the massive crowd inside, the garden proved to be a good example of a fully functioning Persian garden: water was flowing, all the gravity-driven fountains were working, the pools were not empty and the lush quadripartite landscape was well-kept. Also, the original water source, the Solomon’s spring, can be seen at the back, still pumping water in since the beginning. There are other historic elements inside such as the “hamman,” or bathhouse, where a chancellor was assassinated in 1852 in the order of King Nasereddin Shah, as well as pavilions.
The garden is enclosed by a high and thick mud curtain wall, isolating the tranquil and green inside from its arid surroundings. The present garden was constructed in the late 16th century, under the reign of the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas the Great. It reached its full extent, however, during the subsequent Qajar period.
Continuing gardens of learning
The Eram Garden in Shiraz is much bigger than the one in Kashan. Due to this, there are more spaces to explore and more recent features added such as an adjacent rose garden. Today, this historic Persian garden is encompassed within the bigger botanical garden of the Shiraz University. The iconic Qavam pavilion, which serves as the quintessential backdrop to the garden, is largely considered as an impressive work of Qajar art. What we enjoyed the most there, however, was an abundance of many local plants and tall trees, some of which were then even in bloom. Unfortunately, unlike Fin Garden, the watercourses and fountains were dry. Nevertheless, Eramgarden provided something that the earlier two failed to offer: a pleasant and relaxing walk in and around a premier Persian garden.
While the Persian garden-inspired gardens in India might be more popular to most, the pleasure derived in visiting the Persian gardens in Iran lies in the fact that they represent the pure form of this unique, beautiful and enduring gardening tradition.
Image credits: Bernard Joseph Esposo Guerrero