For more than three thousand years, the Persian garden has been a focus of Iran''s national imagination, influencing its art, literature, and even religion. The Persian garden''s inspirational role has, however, extended far beyond the land of its origin; its precepts have exerted a profound influence on garden design around the world. The Persian Garden: Echoes of Paradise chronicles the history of the Persian garden, from the magnificent sanctuaries and hunting parks of fifth-century b.c. Persepolis to the magical nightingale gardens of nineteenth-century Tehran. All were seen as a kind of earthly paradise (the English word paradise has its roots in the old Persian word pairi-daeza meaning a "walled space"). To an astonishing extent, that vision seems justified. This book was meticulously researched and created over a period of six years in, Paris, Tehran and Washington by photographer, Mehdi Khansari and architect Minouch Yavari, together with the renowned Persian architect and arch