From Anbar

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An Ab Anbar with double domes and wind catchers in the central desert city of Nain , near Yazd .

An Ab Anbar , Persian آب انبار āb Anbār , 'water storage tank, cistern ', is a traditional drinking water reservoir from Persian antiquity .

construction

Ab Anbars have a rectangular or round floor plan. Examples of the rectangular design can be found in the village of Qazvin . Typical representatives of the round floor plan can be found in Yazd, for example.

In order to be able to withstand the pressure that the stored water exerts on the container walls, the storage container is placed underground. In connection with the fact that only the roof construction rises above ground level, this construction method shows a high stability in earthquakes. An important aspect as many Iranian cities are located directly in earthquake regions.

The materials used to build an Ab Anbar are very hard. The walls, which are up to 2 meters thick, are made of bricks (called Ajor Ab Anbari ) on the inside , which were then plastered with a layer of a waterproof mortar up to 3 cm thick. This mortar, called sarooj , is made from a mixture of sand, lime, egg white, clay, goat hair and ash, which varies depending on the geographic and climatic location of the city. Some very large Ab Anbars have not just one but two layers of brick.

Some of the Ab Anbars were so large that other buildings were erected on them; For example, a caravanserai was built on Ab Anbar by Haj Agha Ali in Kerman and a mosque was built on Ab Anbar by Vazif near Isfahan .

For structural reasons, the bottom of a storage facility was often filled with heavy metals. Therefore, Agha Muhammad Khan, an 18th century monarch, is said to have had the metals lifted from the floor of the Ab Anbah of Ganjali Khan's public baths to make projectiles for war.

Storage

The Ab Anbar of Sardar-i Bozorg in Qazvin is the largest Ab Anbar in Iran, covered only by a dome.

There were several different designs of the vaulted roof of the store, called ahang , kalanbu or kazhāveh . This or a combination of them was used depending on the type of storage itself.

The Ab Anbar with the largest single dome in Iran is the Sardar-e Bozorg in Qazvin.

Some sources report that the builders first built the water reservoir and then completely filled it up with hay and straw before starting construction of the dome. After the dome was completed, the straw was set on fire, which freed up the space in the attic. The fact that scaffolding was used in the construction of the storage facility can still be proven today by the mounting holes for these in the walls.

A slightly cheaper method of construction consisted of first digging a trench where the walls should stand. This trench was then filled with a mortar that hardened for several days. Then the inside of the Ab Anbar was dug and the ground poured. After a roof was erected over the structure, the walls were plastered with the waterproof mortar and the Ab Anbar could be filled.

Building a dome over a rectangular water reservoir was not an easy task, but the construction of a dome was nothing new for the architects of the time, as you can see from the masterpieces such as the dome in Soltaniyeh .

It is not known why in some places rectangular and in others round floor plans were preferred, although the architects knew that the round granaries were easier to provide with a dome. Another advantage of the round design is the lack of corners in which dirt can collect, which makes the Ab Anbar more hygienic. Cylindrical storage tanks also had the advantage that the water pressure was distributed more evenly on the walls of the storage tank than would be the case with rectangular storage tanks. Rectangular storage tanks, however, had the advantage of being able to hold a larger volume. The largest Ab Anbar are not round, but rectangular. The rectangular Ab Anbars can still be divided into square ones, such as the Ab Anbar Sardar-e Bozorg in Qazvin, which was built by Sardar Hosein Qoli Khan, and rectangular non-square representatives.

Due to their size, some of the rectangular Ab Anbars require pillars in the attic to support the dome. For example, the Ab Anbar Sardar e Kuchak in Qazvin has a single, massive column in the middle of the granary, which is divided into four fields spanned by separate domes, each with a floor area of ​​8.5 x 8.5 m². Further examples are the Ab Anbar under the Zananeh Bazaar in Qazvin, which has four pillars in the store, while the Seyed Esmail Ab Anbar in Tehran is said to have had 40 pillars.

Access to Ab Anbar

To get to the water, you have to go through the always open entrance ( sar-dar ) and descend a staircase to get to the lowest level of the Ab Anbar, the so-called Pasheer . There the water can be taken from one or more taps. In the immediate vicinity of the faucet there is usually a recessed seat, a sewer drain and one or more ventilation shafts. Depending on the depth at which the taps are located, the water is colder or warmer. Some stores have multiple taps at different depths along the stairs, not just on the lowest level.

This device means that nobody has direct access to the water in the water tank, which reduces the risk of possible contamination. The contents of the water reservoir are usually completely sealed off from the outside world, with the exception of ventilation shafts or wind catchers. To further reduce the risk of contamination, the inner wall of the water reservoir is covered with a salty mass that forms a film on the surface of the water. The water reservoir is then monitored every year to ensure that the surface of the water is intact, because the water is extracted exclusively from the lower part of the reservoir, the pasheer and never from the surface.

The sar-dar of Ab Anbar by Haj Kazem in Qazvin, after a drawing by the French archaeologist Jane Dieulafoy from the mid-19th century

In some Ab Anbars, such as the one in Qazvin, the staircase and the actual storage facility form a structural unit. Others, like the Ab Anbar in Yazd, have no structural connection between the staircase and the water reservoir. It can also happen with large Ab Anbars that there is more than one staircase and more than one extraction point on the same level.

The number of stages depends on the capacity of the water tank. Big Ab Anbars like the Sardar-e Bozorg have 50 steps between street level and Pasheer and lead to a depth of 17 m. The Ab Anbars in Qazvin, for example, have the following number of steps: the Haj Kazem 38 steps, the one under the Nabi Mosque 36 steps, the one under the Jame 'Mosque 35 steps and the Ab Anbar Zabideh Khatun 20 steps. In order to offer the opportunity to take a short rest when using the stairs, some stairs have one to three landings in the course of the stairs. Otherwise all stairs are linear.

The person responsible for filling the Ab Anbars, regardless of whether it is a private or public Ab Anbar, is called Meerab . One of its main tasks is the regular control of the underground water network and the supply and discharge lines, the so-called Kariz. If a household needs a filling of the Ab Anbar, the Meerab is asked to open the corresponding Kariz for their Ab Anbar. One night is usually enough to fill a typical private Ab Anbar. In addition, the Ab Anbar must be cleaned of sediments once a year. This process is called layeh-rubi .

The Sar-dar

The Sar-dar (سردر) is an arched entrance that leads down into the Ab Anbar. It includes the stairs down to the pasheer. The walls are sometimes provided with sayings and above the entrance there is often the name of Ab Anbar, the builder, donor or donor of the last repair, as well as the year of construction.

ventilation

Iranian Ab Anbare have one to six wind catcher towers. The Ab Anbare in Yazd, Kashan, Naeen and other cities with hot climates in Iran are well equipped with wind catchers for cooling and ventilation. In Qazvin, the Ab Anbars were mostly only built with ventilation shafts or smaller wind catchers. The Ab Anbare in Qazvin do not have wind catchers, as are common in other parts of Iran. This is probably due to the special climatic conditions (the region around Qazvin has very cold winters and no particularly hot summers, such as the region around Yazd).

Function of ventilation

The moving air (wind) creates a negative pressure as it passes the tip of the wind catcher, which sucks the rising warm air from inside the Ab Anbar, while the cold air remains inside. The ventilation effect of the wind catchers prevents the air inside the Ab Anbar from sticking out and humid and warm air from collecting.

In addition, the very well insulating walls of the Ab Anbar, similar to a cave, prevent the temperature inside from rising.

Because of all these effects, the Ab Anbar contains clear, clean, cold water all year round.

glossary

  • Ab Anbar آب انبار : Literal translation: Ab means water and Anbar means storage. A specially constructed, underground fresh water cistern, usually equipped with wind catcher towers and fed from a Kariz.
  • Gushvār گوشوار : Something that can be found in symmetrical form on both sides of an element. For example two small rooms on the sides of a passage, entrance etc.
  • Kariz كاريز : An underground water channel similar to a qanat .
  • Layeh-rubi : The periodic cleaning of a qanat, karize or ab anbars from sediments that come with the water.
  • Maz-har مظهر : The first place a Kariz or Qanat appears on the surface of the earth.
  • Meerab ميرآب : A person who is responsible for directing water into the Ab Anbars via Karize or Qanate if necessary.
  • Nazr نذر : A prayer in which a person asks for a favor and in return makes a promise to a sacred entity .
  • Pasheer پاشير : The lowest point of an Ab Anbar staircase. The faucet for drawing water from the water tank is usually located here.
  • Qanat قنات : A system of interconnected springs, usually originating from elevated locations, that carry water underground to distant, lower lying Maz-Har.
  • Saqqa-khaneh سقاخانه : A place (usually an alcove in an alley) where candles are lit and prayers or nazr are said.
  • Sar-dar سَردَر : A portal-like entrance into a building, an Ab Anbar or the like, or the decorations above this entrance.
  • Sarooj ساروج : A special, waterproof mortar that is used in the construction of an Ab Anbar.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Memarian, Gholamhosein Asar: Memari-ye ab anbar haye shahr e Qazvin . Vol 35. Miras Farhangi publications. Tehran. Pp. 187-197
  2. ↑ [1] ( Encyclopædia Iranica )
  3. ↑ Pirnia, MK, Memari e Islami e Iran . ISBN 964-454-093-X
  4. ↑ Hazrati, Mohammad Ali. Qazvin: ayinah-yi tarikh va tabi'at-i iran . Sazeman-i Irangardi va Jahangardi publications. Qazvin. 1382 (2003). ISBN 964-7536-35-6 , p. 81
  5. ↑ Memarian, Gholamhosein. Asar: Memari-ye ab anbar haye shahr e Qazvin . Vol 35. Miras Farhangi publications. Tehran. Pp. 187-197
  6. ↑ Pirnia, MK, Memari e Islami e Iran . ISBN 964-454-093-X , p. 214
  7. ↑ Pirnia, MK, Memari e Islami e Iran . ISBN 964-454-093-X , p. 316

further reading

  1. Memari e Islami e Iran . MK Pirnia. ISBN 964-454-093-X
  2. Minudar or Babuljanne . Gulriz, Mohammad Ali. Taha publications. 3rd printing. Qazvin. 1381 (2002). ISBN 964-6228-61-5
  3. Qazvin: ayinah-yi tarikh va tabi'at-i iran . Hazrati, Mohammad Ali. Sazeman e Irangardi va Jahangardi publications. Qazvin. 1382 (2003). ISBN 964-7536-35-6
  4. Saimaa-yi ustaan-I Qazvain . Haji aqa Mohammadi, Abbas. Taha Publications. Qazvin. 1378 (1998). ISBN 964-6228-09-7
  5. Memari-ye ab anbar haye shahr e Qazvin . Memarian, being gholamho. Asar. Vol 35. Miras Farhangi publications. Tehran. (p187-197).
  6. Sair e Tarikhi e banaayi Shahr e Qazvin va Banaha-yi an . Siyaghi, Dr. Seyd Mohammad Dabir. Sazeman e Miras e Farhangi. Qazvin. 2002. ISBN 964-7536-29-1
  7. MJ Strauss. Old ways of water management spring up again in arid regions . International Herald Tribune . Aug 20, 2005.

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