Aligholi Agha Bathhouse in Esfahan

Ali gholi agha, one of the high ranking court officials at the last safavid king shah sultan hussein, built a bath house, bazaar and mosque in the quarter with the same name. this has recently been renovated by the municipality of esfahan and is now open to visitors. after renovation, it has been turned into an ethnological museum containing waxworks. the bath house has two parts, private and public.

the decorations are polychrome tile and faience mosaic from the 17th century safavid era but the murals are from the 19th century qajarid and the 20th century pahlavid dynasties.

they were considered as public buildings and were located in the centre of quarters, along the bazaar axis next to mosques and caravanserais. the bathhouse consisted of two main sections; sarbineh section or the cloak room of the bathhouse and garmkhaneh section which was the pleasantly warm bathing place.

this bathhouse had water pools with a desirable temperature and it had diving boards. the water needed for bathhouses was supplied through water well and a special place was dedicated to it, called gav chah.