Gateway - (3) Ali Qapu
The gateway also played an important role politically. Here the sublime Gateway or Ali Qapu reinforces
the presence of monarchy, just as an eivan reinforces the presence
of God. The raised platform above it has replaced the watchtowers of the city gateway, but its purpose is
the same. For many years a chain was slung across the rear of this great gateway and supplicants would
come and tie their petitions to it in much the same way as people still do on the shrines of holy men.
This then represents the exoteric manifestation of the principle; the esoteric one can be found in the
illuminated angles of cloisters where the concept of transition is achieved without any real door way but
merely by the passage from dark to light and back again. A prime example of this is shown at the angle in
the entrance corridor to the Sheikh Lotfallah Mosque.
Fundamental
Concepts.
Palaces
and Bridges.
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23-January-95
