Meidan Emam, Esfahan

Few public squares rival the Meidan Emam in Esfahan, laid out under Shah Abbas I the Great as the 17th century opened, and framed on every side by two-storey arcades. The Royal Mosque, the Sheykh Lotfollah Mosque, the Qaysariyyeh portico and a 15th-century Timurid palace face one another across the vast space — the social and cultural world of Safavid Persia in built form. The square was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 1979.