A distinguished chronicle of the Persian garden that explores its profound spiritual, historical, and virtually unacknowledged influence on the development of Western garden design in the 21st century. Gardens of Persia demonstrates world-renowned author Penelope Hobhouse's rare ability to combine meticulous research and a practical knowledge of gardens and plants with a love of garden history and travel. By telling the story of the development of gardens throughout the Persian culture's 5,000-year-old history, she imparts a passionate view of the Persian paradise garden as a model for today's gardeners. Buildings, water, and plants combine to give the gardens of Persia a beautiful spiritual quality that has served to inspire garden design across time and diverse cultures. Indeed, Ms. Hobhouse begins with the oldest living garden, Pasargadae, created by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. It represented paradise on earth and spawned other gardens to be seen as settings for sacred contemplation and spiritual nourishment. In later centuries, these gardens evolved further around the world as representations for romance, power, prestige, and symbols of the afterlife. Gardens of Persia is beautifully illustrated with Jerry Harpur's specially commissioned photographs of Persian gardens as well as with similarly inspired ones from around the world, and with lovely images of sumptuous carpets and Persian miniatures. Full-color photographs throughout The word "paradise" comes from the ancient Persian word for an enclosed garden, and the art of landscaping is arguably Iran's great cultural legacy; qanats, underground ducts bringing melted snow from the mountains, have artificially irrigated the arid plateau of Iran for the past two and a half millennia. Hobhouse, a veteran garden historian and designer, elegantly explains the continuity of the aesthetic ideas that govern Persian gardens, with their rills of water and tree-lined alleys underplanted with roses and violets. Her account, accompanied by Jerry Harpur's spectacular photography, spans more than two thousand years of design, leading us from the remnants of Cyrus the Great's capital, Pasargadae, to Persian-influenced gardens as far afield as Quebec. Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker This elegant book, with 150 color photographs and 50 drawings and diagrams, traces the evolution of Persian gardens from ancient times to the present. Famed British garden writer Hobhouse begins by describing the oldest existing garden, Pasargadae, created by Cyrus the Great in the sixth century B.C.E., which provided shade, vegetation, and a refuge. She tells how the ancient Persians built a network of underground aqueducts to bring water from the mountains to the villages and cities in what is now Iran. Hobhouse discusses the spiritual dimensions of these gardens and describes what she labels "luxurious encampments," some of the most beautiful gardens in the world. Other chapters examine triumphant gardens and the gardens of rulers and merchants that were created in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Jerry Harpur's resplendent photographs complement Hobhouse's minutely researched text. George Cohen Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Penelope Hobhouse is a best-selling author as well as a garden designer whose acclaimed landscapings are found throughout The United States and Europe. Her designs include a garden for the Queen Mother. For fourteen years, with her husband, she was in charge of the National Trust Gardens in England. Her many accolades include the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour and the Garden Writers' Lifetime Achievement Award. Jerry Harpur 's award-winning photographs have been published in House & Garden, Architectural Digest, Gardens Illustrated , and a host of books. Used Book in Good Condition