Dubai: Minister for Education Murli Manohar Joshi on November 9 paid a visit to the historical 40-column palace in Isfahan noted for its famous panels depicting Persian Shah Tahmasb receiving the Mughal emperor Humayun.

Joshi, who is on an official visit to Iran to sign a bilateral agreement, flew to Isfahan, a city declared by UNESCO as world heritage site, from Tehran on November 8 accompanied by Indian Ambassador Pripuran Singh Haer and M Bandhopadhyaya, advisor in the Department of Science and Technology.

They were taken around the historical sites by the Vice Chancellor of Isfahan University, Talebi.

The famous Chehel Sotoon palace has only 20 columns counted as 40 taking into account its reflections in the pool close by. The great Safavid dynasty palace is one of the 300 built in Isfahan when it was the capital of Iran in the 17th century.

The spacious audience chamber of the palace is home to paintings celebrating the heyday of the Safavid dynasty, including a particularly celebrated one of the then ruler Shah Tahmasb receiving Humayun at a banquet.

Joshi also visited the Imam Square, one of the largest in the world and symbolic of the Safavid dynasty and its empire.

The minister's itinerary also includes visits to bridges on the river Zayandah built in the 12th to 17th centuries by the Safavit dynasty, contemporaries of the Mughal emperors.

PTI