Small wonder then that we find they play a role in the orientation and ornamentation of gateways such as this one which marks the entrance to the Royal bazaar in Isfahan, shown above. The gateway faces south and the spandrels are decorated with figures of an archer with the body of a lion, representing the constellation of Sagittarius under whose influence the city was thought to fall. At mid-day the sunlight falls directly on these images thus breathing symbolic life into the city's heart. Ardelan and Bakhtiar have expressed this concept as follows:
"The doorway is clearly viewed as a symbolic gesture, for, had it been purely a practical necessity, it would never have developed such an elegance of form and design. The concept of the Gates of Heaven, consequently, relates to the time when the Sun enters either the ascending or descending arc of its annual journey. The concept also establishes the idea of terrestrial cycle through the sensible reality of a temporal, spatial event."
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25-January-95
