Khaju Bridge

Khaju Bridge
Coordinates	32°38′12″N 51°41′0″E / 32.63667°N 51.68333°E / 32.63667; 51.68333
Crosses	Zayanderud
Locale	Isfahan, Iran
Characteristics
Design	Arch bridge
Material	Stone and brick
Total length	137 m (449 ft)
Width	12 m (39 ft)
No. of spans	21
History
Construction end	1650
Location

The Khaju Bridge (Persian: پل خواجو, Pol-e Xāju) is one of the historical bridges on the Zayanderud, the largest river of the Iranian Plateau, in Isfahan, Iran. Serving as both a bridge and a weir, it links the Khaju quarter on the north bank with the Zoroastrian quarter across the Zayanderud. It is located at the end of Kamal Ismail Street in Isfahan.^[1]

The bridge served a primary function as a building and a place for public meetings in the past.^[2][3] It has been described as the city's finest bridge.^[3]

Persian art historians and revivalists, Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman are interred in a mausoleum nearby.^[4]

The Khaju Bridge was built around 1650, under the reign of Abbas II, the seventh Safavid king (shah) of Iran, on the foundations of an older bridge. The existing inscriptions suggest that the bridge was repaired in 1873. There is a pavilion located in the center of the structure, inside which Abbas II would have once sat, admiring the view.^[3] Today, remnants of a stone seat is all that is left of the king's chair.

In words of Arthur Pope and Jean Chardin, Khaju is "the culminating monument of Persian bridge architecture and one of the most interesting bridges extant ... where the whole has rhythm and dignity and combines in the happiest consistency, utility, beauty, and recreation."^[5] The poets of Isfahan wrote beautiful poems on the Khajoo bridge and in these poems they praised its beauties. Among these poems is the long poem by Saeb Tabrizi which describes one of the days of celebration and illumination next to this bridge. According to historians and scholars who have studied the Safavid dynasty, Shah Abbas II's goal in building the Khajoo Bridge was to connect the two districts of Khajoo and the Hassanabad Gate with Takht-e Folad and Shiraz Road. Tourists who came to Isfahan at different times praised the beauty of the Khajoo Bridge and considered it one of the eternal masterpieces of Iranian and Islamic architecture.^[6]

The bridge has 23 arches and is 133 meters long and 12 meters wide. Iranian architects have raised concerns about damage inflicted on the bridge during recent "improvement program" renovations, citing, among other problems, the destruction of the original stepped base of the bridge, the alterations made to the riverbed, and the removal of the Safavid inscribed stone blocks from the bridge.^[7][8]

• 
  The Khaju Bridge as depicted by Eugène Flandin in 1840
• 
  The Khaju Bridge in the early 20th century
• 
  A view of the Khaju Bridge in January 2010
• 
  One of the two stone lions of the Khaju Bridge
• 
  Arches under the Khaju Bridge
• 
  A view seen from within the Khaju Bridge
• 
  A view of the Khaju Bridge in April 2012
• 
  A view of the bridge and the Zayanderud at sunset
• 
  A view of the walkway on the Khaju Bridge at night
• 
  A wide view of the Khaju Bridge at night

• Si-o-se-pol, another such bridge on the same river
• Putra Bridge, a bridge in Malaysia that was inspired by Khaju

• Blair, Sheila S.; Bloom, Jonathan M. (1994). The Art and Architecture of Islam. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Michell, George (1978). Architecture of the Islamic World. London: Thames and Hudson.

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