ALIGHOLI AGHA bathhouse in Isfahan

Extracted from beytoote

"ALI GHOLI AGHA Bathhouse" is located in the north of ZAYANDE Rood in BIDABAD neighborhood of Isfahan

ALI GHOLI KHAN Bathhouse of Isfahan, or the ALI GHOLI KHAN Museum, a bathhouse in Isfahan, has been renovating and turning into an anthropology museum in the current period. This building is located in ALI GHOLI AGHA neighborhood, BIDABADI Street, area number one. Historical complex of ALI GHOLI AGHA is one of the architectural influences of great SAFAVID era, which is located in BIDABAD neighborhood of Isfahan. It consists of market and four streams, mosque, school, bathhouse, wrestling house, caravanserai, and various shops. Unfortunately, in passing years, parts of this complex have been destroyed and new ones have been built instead.
ALIGHOLI AGHA bathhouse was made in 1125 HIJRI by ALIGHOLIAGHA, who was courtier of the two SAFAVID monarchs, Shah Solomon and Shah Sultan Hussein SAFAVI in a collection which was made by himself. This bathhouse is of Isfahan style architecture in the late SAFAVID era. The bathroom has two large and small bathrooms and a small pond space. Each of these two bathrooms is consisted of two main parts of the dressing room and the hothouse, so that at that time men and women could use it separately.
"ALIGHOLIAGHA bathhouse" is a type of Isfahan style architecture in the late SAFAVID era
All people were allowed to enter the bathhouse. From early morning till noon, men were taking bath and from noon to sunset, chance was for women. Of course, in some periods, like the QAJAR period, the rich or the influential people, were hiring the bathhouse and were not allowing ordinary people to enter the bath until they were bathed.
The bathhouse` tank was hot from burning wood and charcoal and even smoke from it was sent into the pipes that were in the floor to be used to disinfect and heat other parts, thus having the lowest available energy, used best .  

Building of "ALI GHOLI AGHA bathhouse" is composed of two large, small bathhouses and a pond space

In many places of bathroom beside the ponds, one piece and white colored stones are seen in size of one meter, with their uneven surface and mild prominent. Do not be surprised if we say that, they used these rocks to massage. These rocks are designed just as chair support and perpendicular to the ponds, and above them, there were some holes which hot water was flowing on uneven surface and was acting just like a massager.
Water was circulating due to difference in levels among reservoirs, ponds and fountains, and sloping pipes were designed for the flow of water. One of the things that will attract your attention when you visit a bathhouse are large number of fountains and streams and are seen almost everywhere. These fountains make the cool sound of the water in the closed space of the bathhouse and can be heard everywhere so that those who have come to the bathhouse to rinse, have an hour to calm down and forget their daily troubles.  

ALIGHOLI AGHA is the builder of ALIGHOLI AGHA Mosque and his brother KHOSROW AGHA is the maker of KHOSROW AGHA bathhouse

One of the interesting things about the bathhouse is its lighting system. Lighting is provided from openings that are embedded on the dome shaped roof. In these openings, there are convex and lens shaped glasses. The convexity of these glasses, in addition to preventing the loss of energy, causes light breakdown and spreads the lighting. In fact engineers and architects have used the magnifying glass in the opposite way and easily lit the space in the bathhouse. Another interesting feature is that, light passes through one side of the glass and that someone on the roof cannot see inside of the bathroom.
ALIGHOLI bathhouse of Isfahan is one of SAFAVID's works in this city
Characteristics of ALIGHOLIAGHA bathhouse museum in Isfahan City:
The entrance to the large bathroom is an octagonal space and is known as the octagon and connects to the dressing room after crossing two corridors perpendicular to each other. Dressing room is a large full octagon. The cover of the arches and its dome is located on eight stone pillars. To provide lighting for the dressing room, there are glazed glass panes called the cups, which have been fixed on the ceiling. Dressing room parts are 140 cm wide with a seven colored tile pattern with flowers, plants, leaves and slices, and the upper part
of the white lime decorations is black in the SAFAVID era and the paintings with various topics are related to the QAJAR era.
Dressing room is connected to hothouse with diagonal corridor. On the other side of the hall is a loincloth washing room and toilet. The hothouse is a roughly rectangular space and is constructed on eight stone pillars and lateral walls. The floor of the hothouse is covered with marble high-quality stones. Some hives, are made under the floor and warm air enters the hives, causing the floor to warm up. Around the hothouse's wall up to 146 cm tall is decorated by tiles with paintings of flowers, chicken, and slabs. The magazine is located next to the hothouse and people could reach to it through some short stairs.
On both sides of magazine there are two specially designed bathrooms that are famous as SHAHNESHIN. On the southern side of the hothouse, there is a four ponds building and a pool with beautiful eastern and western SHAHNESHINS. The approximate dimensions of the pool are 5 * 13 meters with a depth of 25/1. The floor is covered with stone and the wall up to 168 cm high, has seven colored tiles with designs such as cypress and blossom, combinations with paintings of fruit trees, flowers and plants, and slices. On one of the slices overlooking the hothouse, there is a tile panel which depicts a man standing with a dress, turban and a cane, which dates back to the SAFAVID era, and is likely representing the builder of bathhouse, that means ALIGHOLI AGHA.  

ALIGHOLI AGHA bathhouse complex is consisted of two large and small bathhouse

The small bathhouse has similar architectural structure to the bigger one, except in size. The water used in the bath was supplied from GAV (cow) well that was pulled out by a cow in a space called GAVRO on the western side of the building and transferred to a reservoir located on the roof, and from there with linen pots to magazines, streams and four ponds were guided. From other parts of the bathhouse is heating system which is consisted of TUN (fire tin), fuel store, TIAN ( special water heating pot) and a dust collecting pit located on the western side of the building, as well as chimneys and heat transfer channels under the bathhouse. The sewage disposal system is in the fetid water method. So that the sewage was directed through the foam gutters of the fireplace and dressing room to the canal, and eventually it was carried out in a large area behind the bathhouse, dumped there and after drying, was taken out of the city.
The building, with an area of 983 square meters, is now open to tourists as a museum of anthropology.