A garden of paradise
Eram means paradise, after the legendary garden of Iram. A royal garden may have stood here since the Seljuk era, but the garden seen today was laid out in 1824 by Muhammad Qoli Khan, chief of the Qashqai tribe. The estate later passed to the Nasir ol-Molk family, whose architect Muhammad Hasan, who also built the famous pink Nasir ol-Molk Mosque, rebuilt the pavilion between 1875 and 1897, covering it in painted tiles of kings, poets and legends.
Today Eram is the botanical garden of Shiraz University, with tall cypresses lining its paths, roses in spring, and the pavilion mirrored in the water in front of it. It is one of the nine gardens inscribed together as The Persian Garden on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
