Eram Garden, Shiraz

Eram Garden (باغ ارم, Bâgh-e Eram) is a historic walled garden in the north-west of Shiraz, with a Qajar-era mansion reflected in a long pool, avenues of tall cypresses and a botanical collection run by Shiraz University. It is one of the nine gardens inscribed by UNESCO in 2011 as “The Persian Garden”, and the best place in Shiraz to see how a formal Persian garden works.

The name

Eram is the Persian form of Iram, a legendary city mentioned in the Qur’an as “Iram of the pillars”. Later stories made it the garden built by the proud king Shaddad to rival paradise. Calling a garden Eram was therefore a claim that it was a paradise on earth, an idea at the heart of Iranian garden design since the walled royal gardens of the Achaemenids. That long tradition is told in The Persian Garden (Pardis) through History.

A short history

Local tradition says that a garden on this site goes back to the Seljuk period, and Shiraz was certainly a city of gardens long before the Qajars, as the poems of Hafez and Saadi show. What you see today, however, is mostly the work of the 19th century. The mansion was built in the Qajar period for the chiefs of the Qashqai tribal confederation, whose summer and winter pastures lay around Shiraz, and the estate later passed to the Qavam family, the most powerful family of Qajar Shiraz, who also built the Narenjestan and the Nasir al-Molk Mosque. In the 20th century the garden was acquired by Shiraz University, which runs it today as a botanical garden open to the public.

How the garden is laid out

A classic Persian garden is built around water and straight lines. At Eram, the main axis runs from the entrance towards the mansion. Along it flows a narrow water channel that widens into a long rectangular pool directly in front of the house. Paths, flower beds and rows of trees run parallel to it. When the water is still, the mansion appears twice, once in stone and once in the pool, which is the view on most photographs of Shiraz.

The trees are part of the design, not decoration. Tall cypresses, a symbol of life and of the beloved in Persian poetry, line the main avenue and give shade. Behind them are orange and other fruit trees, palms, and many plant collections added by the university: roses of many varieties, cacti, and trees from different parts of Iran. In spring the scent of orange blossom (bahâr-nârenj) fills the garden.

The mansion

The mansion (kushk) is a three-storey building with a raised central porch held up by slender columns. Its facade is covered in tile panels in the Qajar style, with figures from Persian legend and history, scenes of kings and courtiers, flowers and birds, and lines of poetry. Inside, the rooms have painted ceilings and mirror work, though access to the interior varies and the building is often seen only from outside.

Look at the tiles closely: the bright yellows, pinks and greens and the European-influenced figures are typical of late 19th-century Shiraz, quite different from the blue and white tiles of Safavid Isfahan. The tiles of the Nasir al-Molk Mosque, built in the same decades, share this palette.

Visiting

• When to go: spring (March to May) is the classic season, when roses and orange trees are in flower and Nowruz brings crowds of Iranian families. Autumn is also pleasant. Summer middays are hot, though the shade of the cypresses helps.
• Time of day: late afternoon is good for the reflection of the mansion in the pool and softer light on the tile panels.
• Time to allow: an hour to an hour and a half for a slow walk.
• Getting there: the garden is in the north-west of the city, a short taxi ride from the centre; it combines well with an afternoon at the Tomb of Hafez, also in the north of the city.
• Opening hours and tickets change; check current information locally.

Other gardens in the UNESCO group include Fin Garden in Kashan and Shazdeh Garden near Kerman; see Fin Garden, Kashan and Shazdeh Garden, Mahan. For the rest of the city, see our Shiraz city guide.