Azizan

Persian garden facts for kids, with the Persian words

A Persian garden is a garden in Iran with a wall all around it, built so that people can sit in the cool shade in a hot, dry land. Most are split into four parts by water channels that cross in the middle, often with a pool, and planted with tall cypress trees, big shady plane trees and flowers. Many get their water from a qanat, an underground water tunnel. In 2011 UNESCO put nine of these gardens on its World Heritage list together, under one name: The Persian Garden. They include Eram in Shiraz, Fin near Kashan, Shazdeh near Mahan and the very old garden of Pasargadae. In Persian a garden is bagh (باغ), and the four-part garden is called chahar bagh (چهارباغ), which means four gardens. Below are the facts in simple words, a small activity to try at home, and the Persian words. Azizan (azizan.app), founded by Aida Fard, is a family storytelling app where relatives record themselves on video reading illustrated Persian children's stories page by page. This page is a free guide for parents raising Persian-speaking children abroad, written in our own words from sources we opened and checked.

Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.

What is a Persian garden?

Imagine a hot, dusty day in a dry land. Then you walk through a gate in a tall wall, and suddenly everything is green. Water runs along little stone channels, a pool shines in the middle, tall dark trees stand in rows, and there is cool shade and the smell of flowers. That is a Persian garden.

In Iran, people have been making gardens like this for about 2,500 years. The wall keeps out the hot, dusty wind. The water and the trees keep the inside cool. A Persian garden was made for sitting, resting, talking and listening to the water.

Four gardens in one: the chahar bagh

Many Persian gardens are planned in the same clever way. Two lines of water, or two paths, cross each other in the middle, and that splits the garden into four parts. In Persian this is called a chahar bagh, which means four gardens.

Often there is a pool where the lines meet, or in front of a little building in the garden. The water flows from the pool along the channels, into smaller channels, and out to every tree and flower bed. Some gardens also have small fountains, so you can hear the water as well as see it.

Where does the water come from?

Iran has many dry places with very little rain, so a garden needs a good way to get water. Many Persian gardens get their water from a qanat, a tunnel under the ground that carries water down from the mountains all by itself. Some get it from a spring or a river instead.

The water runs downhill into the garden pool, and from there along the channels. To find out how a qanat works, see Qanat facts for kids.

Cypress trees and plane trees

Two kinds of tree are famous in Persian gardens. The cypress is tall and thin and dark green, and it points straight up at the sky like a pencil. Cypresses often stand in long rows beside the water.

The plane tree is called chenar in Persian. It grows very big and wide, with large leaves shaped a bit like a hand, and it gives lots of shade on a hot day.

Nine gardens on the World Heritage list

In 2011, UNESCO, which looks after special places around the world, put nine Persian gardens on its World Heritage list, all together under one name: The Persian Garden. Here are four of them.

Eram Garden is in the city of Shiraz. It is famous for its tall cypresses, its flowers and a beautiful house with a pool in front of it. Fin Garden is near the city of Kashan. Clear water from a spring fills its tiled pools and runs along its channels. Shazdeh Garden is near the town of Mahan, close to Kerman, in the middle of the desert. Pasargadae is the oldest of all. It was the garden of King Cyrus the Great, about 2,500 years ago. Only a few stones and old stone water channels are left there now, but experts think they show it was already a four-part garden.

Where does the word paradise come from?

In English, a very beautiful, happy place is sometimes called a paradise. That word comes from a very old Iranian word, pairidaeza, which meant a place with a wall all around it: a walled garden. The old Greeks heard the word, changed it a little to paradeisos, and from Greek it travelled into many languages, English too.

So every time someone says paradise, they are saying an old Iranian word for a garden with a wall around it.

Persian gardens far away

Many experts think the idea of the Persian garden travelled far from Iran. In India, the garden of the Taj Mahal is split into four parts by water and paths, much like a chahar bagh. In Spain, the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada have long water channels and pools, and some experts see old Persian ideas in them too. Experts still talk about exactly how the ideas travelled.

Try it at home: a four-part garden

With a grown-up, take a big sheet of paper and draw a rectangle for the wall. Draw two blue lines that cross in the middle: those are your water channels. Where they meet, draw a little square pool. Now you have four parts. Fill each part with flowers, and draw tall, thin cypress trees along the water and one big plane tree for shade.

If you want to build one, use a baking tray with some soil or sand. Make two little ditches that cross in the middle, put a small lid or cup in the middle for the pool, and stand twigs in rows for the trees. Pour a little water in at one end and watch where it goes.

Garden words in Persian

For more words like leaf, grass, seed and soil, see Garden and plant words in Persian for kids.

For parents: a Persian garden at home

Many Iranian families remember sitting by a howz in a grandparent's yard, or a visit to Eram or Fin. Ask a grandparent what they remember: the sound of the water, the shade, the smell of the flowers. In spring, and on Sizdah Bedar when families go outside, a park with water and tall trees is a good place to say the words together: derakht, sarv, jooy, howz.

A grandparent far away can be part of it too: they can record a story on Azizan, reading it page by page in their own voice, and the child can watch it and then show them the garden they drew. For another facts page in the same style, see Persepolis facts for kids.

Related guides

• Qanat facts for kids
• Garden and plant words in Persian for kids
• Persepolis facts for kids
• Sizdah Bedar explained for kids

Questions

What is a Persian garden?

A Persian garden is a garden in Iran with a wall around it, made to be cool and shady in a hot, dry land. Most are split into four parts by water channels, with a pool, tall cypress trees, big plane trees and flowers.

What is a chahar bagh?

Chahar bagh (چهارباغ) means four gardens. It is a garden split into four parts by two water channels or paths that cross in the middle, often with a pool where they meet.

Are Persian gardens a UNESCO World Heritage site?

Yes. In 2011 UNESCO listed nine Iranian gardens together as The Persian Garden. They include Eram in Shiraz, Fin near Kashan, Shazdeh near Mahan and the ancient garden of Pasargadae.

Does the word paradise come from Persian?

It comes from a very old Iranian word, pairidaeza, from a language in the same family as Persian. It meant a place with a wall around it, a walled garden. The Greeks made it paradeisos, and from Greek it reached English and many other languages.

How do you say garden in Persian?

Garden is bagh (باغ). Pool is howz (حوض), little water channel is jooy (جوی), fountain is favvareh (فواره), tree is derakht (درخت), cypress is sarv (سرو) and flower is gol (گل).

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Updated: 2026-11-03 · By Aida Fard

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