🌍✨🎁Gifts from the Land of Iran 🇮🇷

I will tell you a story about an ancient land filled with thinkers 🤔, gardeners 🌿, scientists 🔬, mathematicians ✍️, artists 🎨—and children 👧👦 just like you. Have you ever heard of a country called Iran 🇮🇷? Let’s find it on the map… 🗺️

🌍🏛️ Through our stories and materials on the history shelf we discover how all human beings, from different places and civilizations , have helped build the world the way we know it today. We also know that inventions come from different parts of the world, little by little not all at once , Iran is one of those places where a clever inventions and discoveries were made long time ago. Let’s go back in time together ⏳, and discover a different side of this land.

A long, long time ago—more than 2,500 years ago 📜, this land was called Persia 🐫. It was known across the world for its beauty, wisdom, and creativity where a group of ancient people lived. They were called the Aryans 🐎—travelers, storytellers, and sky-watchers.

They moved with their animals 🐑 across mountains 🏔️ and plains 🌾, carrying fire 🔥 as a sign of truth 💎 and light 🌟. That ancient word—Aryānām [🗣 ah-ree-AH-nahm]—means Land of the Aryans. And from this word, we get the name Iran 🇮🇷.

Over thousands of years, this land became a place where knowledge bloomed 🌸 like a garden. People in Persia (as it was called for many centuries) built great cities 🏛, traded ideas and they traveled. 🐪 Persian travelers rode camels and horses across deserts and mountains. They followed paths that connected the East and the West, carrying not only goods—but ideas. 🌏 This great path was called the Silk Road 🌐 —a winding trail of stories, spices, music, and inventions. And Persia? It was right in the middle. Like a mighty bridge between worlds 🌉.

When traders came from China 🇨🇳 with silk and paper… From India 🇮🇳 with spices and games… From Arabia 🌙 with science and stories… And from Greece 🇬🇷 with ideas and tools…They all met in Persia 🇮🇷—where people shared, listened, mixed, and sent their gifts farther along the road.

🌿🌍 Persia was a dry land 🌵, with hot summers ☀️, but the people had a secret: They built underground water tunnels called qanats 👏 (ka–nats), which carried water 💧 from the mountains 🏔️ to their homes and fields. Because no water - no life. This clever system made it possible to grow food 🥬 and fill their cities with life.

With that precious water, they created Paradise Gardens 🌳—places so peaceful, they were like heaven on Earth ☁️. The word paradise 🕊 actually comes from the Persian word pairi-daeza, meaning walled garden. These gardens had 🍊 fruit trees, 💦 flowing fountains, 🌸 blooming flowers, 🦜 birds singing in the trees, and cool shaded paths for resting and dreaming 🌈.

They looked to the sky 🌌 to understand time and seasons ⏰🍂, and they passed down their knowledge through stories 🗣, not books 📚. They also wove Persian carpets 🧵—not just to decorate rooms, but to tell stories without using a single word. Each one was made by hand ✋, using color 🎨, patience 🕰️, and memory 🧠—sometimes taking months or even years to complete.

And the people of Persia loved to think. They loved a quiet, powerful game called chess ♟️. But chess began earlier in India 🇮🇳, more than 1,500 years ago, where it was called “four divisions” of the army: 🐘 Elephants, 🐎 Horses, 🛺 Chariots, and 🪖 Foot Soldiers.

It was in Persia that the famous chess phrase “checkmate” was born—from the Persian “shah mat,” meaning “the king is helpless.” From there, chess traveled across continents—changing slowly as it was passed from culture to culture—until it reached the world we live in today 🌍. So when you play chess ♟️, remember the Persian minds that looked closely and said: 🌟 “The king is helpless.” “Shāh māt.”

👧🏽👦🏼 Even children in ancient Persia went to school —and there, they played chess! Games like chess ♟️ were more than just play—they were exercises for the mind 🧠. Like riddles and poetry, chess was used to teach strategy, patience, and the art of thinking ahead.

Children from noble or scholarly families were taught to read 📖, write ✍️, and think with care and curiosity 🤔. Learning was not only about facts—but about wisdom, beauty, and clear thinking. Persian culture treasured storytelling 🗣️ and games that made you think—so it’s easy to imagine children gathered on carpets 🧵, learning the moves of the game while elders whispered stories of unknown heroes and clever inventions.

🌟 Many years later, during a time called the Golden Age of Islam 🌙, a Persian mathematician named Al-Khwarizmi 🎓 worked in a great library in Baghdad. He helped develop algebra—👏 al–ge–bra 👏—from the Arabic word al-jabr, meaning restoration. But what does restoration mean? 🛠️ Al-Khwarizmi used math to “restore” balance in equations—when something was missing, he showed how to find it! 🧮 That’s why we use letters like x and y in math today—to stand for something we don’t know yet… but can figure out with logic and patience! 🔍➕🤓

🏛️ Today, Iran is filled with special places that still whisper their ancient stories:

• The royal ruins of Persepolis—which means “City of the Persians.” A royal city built for special ceremonies and visitors from all around the ancient world 🌍. Carved with lions, kings, and empires.There are carvings of people from many different lands walking up the steps, each wearing their own traditional clothes and carrying gifts such as fabrics 🧵, gold 💰, and spices 🌿

• The quiet, flowing qanats, still bringing water from the mountains.

• ✨ Persian artists were like math-magicians! They used lines, angles, and shapes to make walls sparkle with perfect harmony in the glowing beauty of Golestan Palace. A tessellation treasure from the distant past, still inspiring eyes and hearts in the present. 💠📐🌟 Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5

Iran is not only a place of the past ⏳. It is alive ❤️, full of children who learn how to play chess. Some people still weave carpets the way their grandparents did🧵. Iran is one strong, shining thread 🧵 in the great tapestry of humanity 🧶.

✨ Imagine… what stories hide in other countries?

I wonder...💧how does a qanat really work? And how did other people in other dry places find water where the land was hot and rain never came?

🌍🧵📐 Possible Follow-Up Explorations

📚 Linked to Geometry Chapter – The World is Full of Shapes

Create non-geometric tessellation tile

1. Start with a square.

2. Cut and slide edges to make a tiling template.

3. Repeat the shape across a paper to tile it.

4. Add color inspired by Persian tilework

   ✨ Option: explore Persian geometric patterns in mosques.
   

📚 Linked to Geography Chapter – The Work of Water

💧🔍 Research the Persian Qanat

• What is a qanat?

• How does it bring water from the mountains to the desert?

• Where are qanats still in use today?

  Create a labeled drawing or a simple clay model of a qanat.

With Montessori joy,

Vanina 😊