The city that's 'half the world'

Iran's ancient Esfahan was built to dazzle, and it continues to shine through the ages. Mike Peters reports.

The skyline explodes in a fantasy of blue, yellow and white tiles - a symphony of architecture that a Persian ruler orchestrated to celebrate an empire at its peak.

Shah Abbas I became known as Abbas the Great, but it was for his capital that he sought true greatness. "Esfahan," an admiring French poet once declared, echoing a local saying, "is half the world."