Hammam Ganjali Khan

Hammam Ganjali Khan

The hammam Ganjali Khān is one of the buildings of the homonymous complex in the city of Kermān (region of the same name) which was built in the 1611 at the time of the Shāh Abbās.

This hammam, using the skill of the Iranian master painters, tilers and stuccoes in the best form of these arts, was made similar to a museum.

This historic hammam is composed of the following parts:

Portal

The portal consists of simple and blue bricks, a marble border, paintings with images of Bahram Gur, Khosrow and Shirin, kings in the act of hunting, the caravan of camels and predatory animals, the processing of muqarnas, an inscription with a poem engraved on marble and stucco decorations.

Entrance hallway and vestibule

The entrance corridor that includes an irregular corridor-obstacle to the view of the inside of the hammam and cause of the preservation of its heat, a small vestibule and a portal painted with carved sea birds.

Locker room and myāndar (tepidarium)

The dressing room is a large, octagonal covered room with an eight-sided basin in the center. All around there are six benches to sit and change. This space in perfect harmony has been erected on stable columns and a suitable combination of painted and colored majolica surfaces, marble stones, the sound of water and lighting have created a pleasant environment.

Each pavilion of this environment is reserved for a social level: the descendants of the Prophet, the clerics, the local lords, the nobles, the shopkeepers of the bazaar and the peasants.

In this hammam there is also an environment called myāndar (tepidarium) which is actually a small changing room that prevents the exchange of heat between the changing room and the calidarium.

Part of the tepidarium is the changing room and the other part is a six-sided environment that leads to the calidarium.

The vestibule that separates from the calidarium

The environment in between is a meandering vestibule between the dressing room and the calidarium which has arch-shaped entrances with a height of about two meters. This, which keeps the air inside the calidarium, reaches a central vestibule where on either side there are benches; this part was covered with colorful tiles with floral motifs and images of musicians.

In some sections of the vestibules there are small majolica arches with drawings of flowers, foliage and bergamot.

Calidarium and khazineh

The calidarium is rectangular in shape and has a tub of cold water with a bow similar to a tabernacle and has a nice appearance with majolica and stucco work. Also the system for creating the water canal and the fountains of the basin has been designed with such precision and without defects that it is considered among the architectural wonders of the hammam.

In this part we see a single block of stone with the thickness of 10 cm. This stone is so shiny that it transmits light into the bathroom. Here people from above this stone measured the passage of time and colloquially called it the stone of the clock of time.

The architecture of the ceiling of the boiler room corresponds to its floor and this harmony is shown to the visitor as one of the refinements of the building.

Il khazineh has three independent tanks; the central one for hot water and two other tanks for warm water. Next to this part is an octagonal environment that is known by the name of Khalvat (room reserved for authoritative characters, placed near the garmkhāneh, calidarium and equipped with a bathtub).

The heat of the hammam was procured thanks to the furnace; the whole of the corridor, the room and the copper container in the floor and under the khazineh it is called a furnace, golkhan, tyun o pātyun.

In the floor and in the middle of the khazineh a copper vessel consisting of a small cavity was used. Below it is a small room which, thanks to a corridor, leads to the outside of the hammam. A person named "tun tāb"In the periods of time set in the furnace he gave fire to firewood and shrubs so that the water inside the khazineh stay warm.

The smoke and the steam of the furnace at first passed through some interspaces of the hammam floor. These are ventilation holes under the floor of the calidarium which have different piping. The smoke and the fire, after passing through these, came out through a chimney. In fact they had the function of a radiator and let the furnace smoke pass through the holes so that the hammam floor would warm up.

Until the year XGEUM of the solar Hegira people used this public bath; in 1316 this building was restored and rebuilt and used as an anthropological museum showing wax statues of people from different places and belonging to different levels of the society of that era such as clerici, artisans, common people and so on. In addition to the statues of those who were employed in the washing, in this place are exposed containers such as basins, bowls and objects such as sheets to cover the lower body, jujube powder or ziziphus, henna, ancient trays, traditional combs, various mirrors, ancient pumice stones and objects for washing the body.

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