The Persian garden: paradise with a water channel

In a country where much of the land is dry, a garden is a work of engineering as well as beauty. The Persian garden is a walled enclosure, often rectangular, with trees for shade, water that moves in channels and pools, and pavilions where people sit.

An old word

The English word “paradise” comes from the Greek paradeisos, which was borrowed from an Old Iranian word for an enclosure or walled park. This is a well-documented path of the word. The sense of a garden as a vision of the ideal place is very old in Persian culture.

The plan

The classic design is the chahar bagh, the “four gardens”, in which two main axes of water cross at the centre and divide the space into four parts. A pavilion often stands at the crossing or at the end of the main axis.

The remains of a garden at Pasargadae, the early Achaemenid capital, are among the oldest known examples, with stone water channels and basins from the 6th century BCE.

Water

Many gardens depend on the qanat, an underground channel that carries water from the foothills over long distances to the plain. Careful control of water, its sound and its cooling effect are as important to the idea of the garden as the plants. The design also uses the slope of the ground so that water can flow without pumps.

Gardens today

In 2011 UNESCO inscribed a group of nine gardens from different regions and periods of Iran as “The Persian Garden”. They include sites from Pasargadae to the 19th century. Visiting them in different seasons shows how much of the design is about changes of light, shade and scent, which photographs do not capture. Some are in good condition and some face pressure from water shortage and tourism.