Chehel Sotun Palace was a pleasure palace in Esfahan in Safavid times. The name means 40 pillars.

The paintings in the Chehel Sotun Palace provide an incredibly rare pictorial history of Iran in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The paintings provide an intriguing insight into court life, dress, jewellery and hair styles from those times
while the (Qajar era) battle scenes recall the terror of battle.

In all the paintings, each person is individually and faithfully portrayed. This provides us with the opportunity to examine the paintings slowly and closely for all the outstanding "pictures within a picture" which one might otherwise miss.

Restorers from the Iranian Heritage Association have worked carefully to restore the paintings as needed.

The palace garden is an excellent example of a Persian Garden and is part of the five gardens that make up the Persian Garden World Heritage Site. The garden also demonstrates the love of trees in Esfahan.
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