The Water Museum

Yazd water museum was set up in 2000 in the wake of the first international conference on Qanat in Yazd. The museum building has once been a merchant’s house, named Kolahduz-ha, built in 1929. This Museum displays the tool, techniques used for the past 4000 years in Iran in creating underground waterways (called Qanats) and connecting them to the city and field locations for agricultural and other uses. Before the Romans built their aqueducts, Iranians had built an extensive system of underground qanats (aqueduct). A lot of these systems are still functioning today. In fact, there is a large one under this Museum. Two Qanats are running beneath the museum at different levels, which are reachable through a special stairway called Payab. This museum has put on display a variety of water objects from Qanat to water ownership documents. Some parts of the house structure represent some parts of water history in the region. For example, the stairway to Qanat or a reservoir on the roof can show how water technologies and everyday life have been interwoven in the past.