Charbagh or Chahar Bagh (Persian: , chahr bgh, "Four Bghs") is a Persian-style

garden layout. The quadrilateral garden is divided by walkways or flowing water into four smaller
parts.[1] In Persian, "Chr" means 'four' and "bgh" means 'garden'.

History
One of the hallmarks of Persian gardens is the four-part garden laid out with axial paths that
intersect at the garden's centre. This highly structured geometrical scheme, called the chahar bagh,
became a powerful metaphor for the organization and domestication of the landscape, itself a
symbol of political territory.[2]
The Chahrbagh-e Abbasi (or Charbagh Avenue) in Isfahan, Iran, built by Shah Abbas the Great in
1596, and the garden of the Taj Mahal in India are the most famous examples of this style. In the
Charbagh at the Taj Mahal, each of the four parts contains sixteen flower beds.
Chahrbagh originated from the time of Achaemenid Persia. Greek historians, such
as Herodotus and Xenophon, give extensive accounts of Cyrus the Great's palatial city
of Pasargadae and his four-gardens.[3]
In India, the Char Bagh concept in imperial mausoleums is seen in Humayun's Tomb in Delhi in a
monumental scale. Humayan's father was the Central Asian Conqueror Babur who succeeded in
laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty in the Indian Subcontinent and became the first Mughal
emperor. The tradition of paradise garden originated among the Mughals, originally from Central
Asia, which is found at Babur's tomb, Bagh-e Babur, in Kabul.[4]
This tradition gave birth to the Mughal gardens design and displayed its high form in the Taj
Mahal built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, the great, great, grandson of the Central Asian
Conqueror Babur, as a tomb for his favourite Indian wife Mumtaz Mahal, in Agra, India. Here, unlike
most such tombs, the mausoleum is not in the centre of the garden, but on its northern end. The
garden features Italian cypress trees (Cupressus sempervirens) that symbolize death. Fruit trees in
the garden symbolize life. The garden attracts many birds, which are considered one of the features
of the garden.

Contemporary
A charbagh is located on the roof top of the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington, London.
[5]
The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, located on Sussex Drive in the Canadian
capital Ottawa, Ontario contains a charbagh in a modern setting.[citation needed] The Ismaili Center and Aga
Khan Museum in Toronto features a modern interpretation of a charbagh between the buildings.