ĀLĪ QĀPŪ, from the Ottoman Turkish Âli Qapi or Sublime Porte, a metonym for the central Ottoman government in Istanbul
Isfahan, Esfahan province, Iran
Circa 1610
Photographer: Robert Byron
Courtauld Gallery
Originally a Sublime Porte it was transfigured into a six storey palace, each level having its own spiral staircase. On the sixth storey is the Music Chamber, a vast massively intricate alveolate ceiling, a surface of Muqarnas - an acoustic chamber. A complex and unique Helmholtz Resonator. A peculiarity of the Music Chamber is that the musicians play six storeys below on the ground floor, the sound being projected through hollow columns in the walls to the sixth floor and circulated around the Music Chamber via the carved surfaces.
Aali Qapu Palace
360° zoom view
3D acoustic modelling of the chamber
Mocárabe
FRIDAY MOSQUE
Vault
Isfahan, Esfahan province, Iran
Photographer: Robert Byron
Courtauld Gallery
BAZAAR
Shiraz, Fars (Persepolis), Iran
Photographer: Robert Byron
Courtauld Gallery
Cornelis de Bruijn - drawings of Persepolis
4 photographs from the 708 by Robert Byron amongst 26,311 photographs in the architecture section of the 196,981 photographs in the extraordinary Courtauld Institute online A&A art & architecture archive
