Yazd Water Museum
The Yazd Water Museum is another historical attraction of the city, displaying instruments related to measuring, distributing, and storing water on 5 floors.
Yazd Water Museum
Introduction:
The Yazd Water Museum is located in one of the beautiful houses of the Qajar era, called the House of the Kolahdoozha.
The building of this museum is one of the most valuable works of traditional architecture in Yazd.
The Water Museum was opened at the same time as the first international Qanat conference in Yazd in May 1379.
What distinguishes this museum, which is one of the best water museums in the world, from other water museums is that a hundred-year-old aqueduct runs through it.
Like many other historical attractions in Yazd, the Water Museum is located in the Fahadan neighborhood and near Amir Chakhmaq Square.
The presence of these two cultural and historical attractions in one place has made this place popular among domestic and foreign tourists.
History:
The famous architects of the Qajar era, under the orders of Haj Seyyed Ali Akbar Kolahduz, one of the famous merchants of Yazd, began to build the Kolahduzha building.
The construction of the Kolahduzha building began in 1266 AH and was completed in 1308 AH.
Museum building:
The area of the museum building, which now belongs to the Yazd Regional Water Company, is 720 square meters.
Two aqueducts, Rahim Abad and Zarch, passed under this building.
Of course, the two-thousand-year-old Zarch aqueduct still flows in the courtyard of this building with a 75-meter channel.
So that in the absence of noise, the soothing sound of flowing water can be heard.
The Yazd Water Museum consists of 5 floors, with the two aforementioned aqueducts passing through the first floor.
The second floor is an octagonal-shaped aqueduct and is located 10 meters deep in the ground.
Due to the presence of a pond in which the water of the aqueduct flows, the air on this floor is cool.
This was used for washing clothes and dishes and storing food.
The third floor is the basement, which has rooms and corridors, and due to the cool air, the people of the house lived in this part in the summer.
The hall and the five-door rooms, the sashes, the kitchen and the living area for the servants are on the fourth floor, which is the ground floor of the building.
The fifth floor is the roof of the house.
On this floor, there is a well house where two people used to draw water from the well with a well wheel and pour it into a source so that the water from this source could reach the house.
There was also a pond next to the source, and when the source was full, the fountains of the pond would erupt.
The decorations of the house, like the decorations of other noble houses in Yazd during the Qajar period (the merchant’s house, the lars, etc.), are very unique and beautiful.
The stucco work of the Kolahdouzha house is also one of the same unique decorations.
Because of the floral, plant, and animal motifs used in these stuccos, they are called plant motifs.
Yazd Water Museum
Museum items:
In this museum, more than 200 items of equipment and tools such as qanat digging equipment, water volume measuring tools, and lighting equipment in the qanat are visible.
Also, documents and records of water purchase and sale, old endowment letters, Mirab booklets, and water distribution documents are kept.
Containers related to storing and transporting water are also on public display in this museum.
Most of these tools are the result of ten thousand years of efforts by our ancestors in the water industry.
There is also a beautiful model in this museum that will introduce you to how water circulates in the aqueducts and their architecture.
Other information:
Address: Yazd, after Amir Chakhmaq Square, at the beginning of Qiam Street
Visit hours: 8 am to 7 pm (the museum is closed from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm)
Ticket price: Iranian visitors 30,000 rials – foreign visitors 200,000 rials
Did you know that there is another water museum in Mashhad?
You can get to know other tourist attractions in Yazd on Asan-e-Gard.