We made our way to Masjed-e Sheykh Lotfallah, named after a famous preacher. It is said to have possibly functioned as a mosque for the women of the harem. The portal dedication emphasises the explicit Shia's role of the shah as "reviver of the vitues of his pure ancestors and propagator of the doctrine of the pure imans". It also records that the decoration of the mosque was started in 1603 but finished about 15 years later, the time needed to complete the rather amazing ceramic tilework throughout the whole building.
A rather narrow and somber corridor angled, presumably to attain the correct orientation led the visitors to a prayer hall, where turquoise barley twist cables outlining the full length squinches forced us to inevitably look at the dome.
I walked in circles, as most of us did taken by the beauty of the dome, the steady illumination of the windows on the glazed and unglazed surfaces, which depending on the angle re-arranged themselves in countless shining patterns.
As I was making my way out I kept on thinking on the importance of geometry, algebra and mathematics must have played in the design of such a mosque, considered one of the architectural masterpieces of the Safavid Iranian architecture.
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