Instead of lengthy words, which will still fail to describe, I will just leave some pictures here (again with annotations).
Imam Square with the Imam Mosque (entrance and dome) on the southern side. Built by the Safavid dynasty at the end of the 16th. century it is the central square of Isfahan.
The entrance to the Imam Mosque.
A garden in the Imam Mosque
An older and mostly abandoned part of the bazaar.
Some of the offices here looked as if they were locked up 50 years ago and never opened since.
A backyard.
This craftsman invited me to his workshop to practice his english language skills and show me his work. He was manufacturing specially shaped wires to sell to traditional artisans on the bazaar.
A stratigraphy of spices.
Iranian Food: flatbread, soup, spiced and mashed potatoes, doogh (fermented yoghurt drink) and a raw onion. Other patrons told me how to eat it correctly, the bread has to be ripped to little pieces and soaked in the soup. Delicious.
But the "beer" in Iran is just wrong, on so many levels ...
He invited me for tea and tried to sell a carpet. But he had no flying ones, so I had to decline.
Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque: an especially beautiful example of the typical muslim decoration consisting of geometric patterns and calligraphy.
Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque: The evening sun created this amazing illumination.
Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque
Vank cathedral in the Armenian Quarter. A somewhat strange mixture of iranian/muslim architecture on the outside (except for the cross on its roof) and christian sacral art on the inside.
There are the typical christian images of saints painted on the inside of the dome.
Aswell as a rather comical depiction of hell.
A blacksmith's shop on the bazaar
You can find everything on the bazaar (probably even an oil lamp including the djinn). Except for the one item you are actually searching for, a box of dates in my case, something I saw on every second corner the day before, but now I had to search for an hour and ask several people before I found one.
A craftsman colouring cloths on the bazaar.
A park and men playing chess.
Atashgah, a Zoroastrian fire temple on a rock on the outskirts of the city. The old persian religion still has some followers in Iran.
Then there was this guy who wanted to show me his garden after he saw me taking a picture through the gate.
His garden ...
... and his goose.
Ali Qapu palace: another example of the usage of geometric patterns in persian architecture.
A shoemaker patches a hole in one of my gloves. Often people refuse to take a payment for small services like this.
A minarett
One of the many mosques, four iwans (open half-domes) surround a square, where carpets are rolled out for prayers.
A bakery; the bread is delicious, especially fresh and still warm from the oven, and every city has its own distinct variation. But after several months of white bread I started to miss a proper german whole-grain bread.
Small alleyways in the old town.
Contrary to the major monuments and sights, a lot of the older buildings are neglected ruins.
Zayandeh river: due to a rather wasteful consumption and bad water management Zayanderud is a rather pitiful trickle.
Which degrades the Khaju Bridge to span a stretch of dried mud.
Khaju Bridge
Much more interesting than the muddy river are the people gathering every evening under the bridge. They come here to sing until late in the night. The acoustics of the arches and the great skill of the singers make for an amazing experience.
Hang, a vietnamese backpacker, me and an iranian guy who told us about the singers and translated some of the lyrics.
And because images are the wrong medium to convey songs, here is a video of the singers under the Khaju Bridge:
