Dowlat Abad Garden

Dowlat Abad Garden

The four-prayer tower of Dowlat Abad Garden is one of the oldest gardens of Yazd. This garden has been registered in the Unesco Universal Heritage list together with other famous Persian-style gardens of Iran. Extraordinarily, its windbreaker construction, with 33/8 meters, is the tallest clay vent-shafts in the world. Unlike other usual models, the form of this windbreaker is uniquely rectangular that sounds like an octagonal shape from the outside. This causes the reception of the wind from every side and flows downward very easily.

Yazd Dowlat Abad Garden has been built during the ending years of the Afsharid period, around the 18th century by Mohammad Taqi Khan Bafghi, one of the great household heads of Yazd during the period. He was very supportive of the city as he ordered to build a canal transmitting water from Mehriz to this very garden area in Yazd. Thereafter, he founded his governmental aggregation.

This beautiful garden is a complex that is comprised of various buildings, water views, and basins with small vineyards, fruitful pomegranate gardens, and gorgeous flower gardens in between them. The old huge historical canal of Dowlat Abad Garden contains five sets of ducts that used to aggregate some water- mills in the neighboring suburbs of Yazd to finally reach the city garden. This garden has two major parts of interior and exterior sections. Dowlat Abad Garden is practically under the category of residential-governmental classification. The exterior part is specified for governmental ceremonies, receptions, sports, and civil activities. The interior section, however, is focused on private residential functions. To be quite protected, the interior side had a specific guard.

Various parts of this private interior range from an octagonal summer vent-shaft, women’s side, paradise hall, traditional kitchen, watch tower, water storage, and summer and winter stable. The octagonal hall is a unique room where the flow of water and air is calmly mixed. Here, the combination flowing in the small basins of the building moves the cool air of the windbreaker to the main salon and other halls. That is why this side of the building is called the summer room. There are three main halls called “king rooms” with netted doors, two back rooms, and a small vent-shaft attic. The mid ceiling of this octagonal hall shows an alluring art of gold wire floral works together with varied plaster molding designs.

The garden area is surrounded by tall clay walls with a watch tower in one of the corners. The exterior part has been specified for the caravans and managing the affairs of the state. This part did include the front hall and the entrance, the mirror hall, the Tehrani edifice, two bazaars, and public water storage. On the west side of the main octagonal building, there is a grand, luxurious construction with a vent shaft opposite the garden. There are several halls on each side of this grand area with doors and corridors leading to it. There is also a basement exactly under this hall which guides the guests to the garden. Between the interior and the exterior side, “The Heaven-shaped” building is located that has two levels and a grand entrance arch. 

The architect of the garden generously grew the trees symmetrically along the two sides of the main axles of the building. The idea creatively focused the attention of the onlookers on the core building. This very concept stylistically has produced a perspective that has given more depth to the view. The water view which is just matched with the main axis of the interior building, has divided the garden area exactly to two symmetrical rectangles. Symmetry is the major principle of Persian architecture. The most manifest example of such harmony is seen in Dowlat Abad Garden. Even the plants and trees are quite well-balanced in their positions. The aggregation system of the garden is focused on a canal. However, in dry seasons, there is a pit and a fount located in the east angel of the garden.

Water is the concept that is well exhibited in the garden. The architect was so artistically able to guide the water in and out of different areas of the garden. Practically, water is seen everywhere in this beautiful field. The very first place where the water originates from is a marble basin exactly under the octagonal building moving towards another basin in the middle flowing down to three rectangular pools. Opposite the sash windows, there are three bulges made of marble stones named “pigeon breasts” that act to create waves and multiply the volume of water. From each pigeon’s breast, the water flows down to a small basin from which it moves to the grand water view. The reason why water is the dominant theme of this garden is that the place is situated in the heart of Yazd a desert land and those who visit the garden need a source of delicate refreshment there. Water is a gem there. 

At night times, the sash windows, with colorful glasses, reflect the lights of the grand chandeliers and make a dreamy rainbow of Persian red and traditional azure hue. The proximity of the long main pool to the windows forms a romantic mirror picture of the building in the water. The lanterns that are hanging in between the trees tempt every onlooker in a way that one would even imagine herself/himself among the stars of the velvet desert sky. The beautiful cherry trees that are amazingly in the neighborhood of the pine trees create a fanciful attraction very pleasing during the spring. The fragrance of the roses that are growing under the trees is a bonus. Ideally, the area that has been specified for the kitchen building has been turned into a café so that modern visitors could enjoy their time with delicious traditional Persian cuisines and the cool local rosewaters visualizing themselves as part of history. Dowlat Abad Garden is truly the precious emerald jewel of the desert in Iran.