Ālī Qāpū or Naqshe Jahan Mobarake government house like other buildings in Safavid era, is of great attraction and of great importance. In Turkish language, ‘Qāpū’ means door and ‘Ālī’ means glorious and worthy. Therefore Ālī Qāpū is being interpreted as as glorious door.
According to many theories, Shah Abbas wanted to show the superiority of his palace to Ottoman palaces which they called them ‘Babe Ali’ (which means great door), also he wanted to flaunt the beauty and glory of his palace to the European leaders.
The construction of this palace started between 1594 and 1598 as the government house of the Safavid dynasty, it finished during 5 stages in the age of king Abbas II and king Soleiman and it took about 70 up to 100 years.
One of the special features of this palace is that because of the porch on the east side of the building you will face with a two storey building, while at the west side and behind the place 5 floors, at the 2 sides of building you will see a three storey palace. The existence of water at the north and stairs at the south caused that at either side of the building, it looks like there are four floors, but generally it`s a building with 6 floors.
The stairs of this place are high and spiral. Architecturally, the spiral stairs make the building strong and stable. Mostly it was used by the maids and guards in order to go faster to the other floors. Of course they had a solution for people`s fatigue, they could exit the stairs and go to balcony on the west side of the building for rest.
Location:
West side of the Naqshe Jahan square
Visiting Time:
First half of the year 9 am - 7 pm. Second half 9 am - 5 pm
Holidays (2019):
June 4 & 29 , May 26, September 9 & 10 , October 27
Ticket Price (2019):
200,000Rial
Access ways:
Bus, Taxi, Subway, Car
Nearby attraction:
Sheikh Lotf Allah mosque at Naghsh-e Jahan square
Jame Abbasi mosque at Naghsh-e Jahan square
Gheysarie Bazzar at Naghsh-e Jahan square
Chehel Sotoon Palace. (650 m)
Hasht Behesht Palace, (1.4 km)
Phone number
+98 31 32222173
