The Anthropology Museum of Mashhad is located next to the holy shrine of Imam Reza, in one of the most popular parts of the city among tourists. Visiting this museum is a special opportunity for tourists to get more familiar not only with the culture and history of Iranians but also with the unique architecture, techniques, and art of this ancient country. 

What do you know about the Anthropology Museum of Mashhad?
Iran is a huge historical country and is well known for its art, architecture, and literature in the world. Among different types of historical constructions, Iran is particularly known for its old traditional bathrooms. There are several old and famous bathrooms, such as Fin bathroom or the Ganjali Khan bathroom in Kerman, which are known due to their special architecture. However, one of the biggest and oldest but unfortunately less famous bathrooms of Iran is the Mahdi Gholi Beik bathroom which now is also known as the Anthropology Museum of Mashhad. Visiting this place is strongly recommended due to several different reasons which make this museum and its building of special importance for both local and international tourists. In this article, we will introduce this rather special and interesting place to you. 
 

Why should we visit the Anthropology Museum of Mashhad?
The building of Anthropology Museum of Mashhad is a special and historical structure of the city which its origin dates back to Safavid dynasty. The building of the Anthropology Museum was originally one of the oldest and the biggest traditional bathrooms of Mashhad, known as Mehdi Gholi Beik bathroom. By the moment you enter the building, special paintings and decorations on the walls and ceilings will capture your attention and shed more light on complicated and traditional Iranian architecture.
Mehdi Gholi Beik bathroom, which is the main building of today Anthropology Museum of Mashhad, is built with materials such as glass, stone, metal, Lime, Sarooj, and tile. The main body of this building consists of seven smaller sections, all designed for different purposes. The main building of the bathroom is mostly consist of brick. 
Paintings and decoration elements which have been used in the main parts of the Mehdi Gholi Beik bathroom are one of the special things about this building.  Ceilings in the main parts of the bathroom, which now are used as main rooms of the Anthropology Museum of Mashhad, are designed with sophisticated beautiful paintings which have been added to the decoration at different times, all of which retelling various stories. In some parts of the main section, you can also see some demonstrations of Rostam and Sohrab’s story which are presented with small descriptions. Rostam and Sohrab is part of the Persian epic Shahnameh which belongs to the 10th century. Paintings of the main dome are more concentrated on the daily life of normal people. While, Anthropology museum of Mashhad is mostly focused on retelling the story of normal people’s daily life by concentrating on tools that they have used through the time, providing such demonstrations in rooms with decorations that are mostly concentrated on normal life of people, has provided a great harmony and a pleasant atmosphere in big halls of this museum.
 
Once visiting the Anthropology museum of Mashhad, it is also good to notice two special architectural techniques which have been used in the main building of the museum. The heating and light system of the main building has brought a lot of attention to this historical building as the techniques date back to centuries ago. For lighting the interior parts of the building, a special form of light wells call “Goljam” have been used. Different sizes and numbers of such light wells have been employed in different sections of the main building to take advantage of natural light of day from sunrise to sunset. During the day, due to varying angles of sun and light entering the light wells, a beautiful variation of lights and shadows were provided in the interior parts of the building, adding to its magical beauty. Nowadays, the entire building is connected to the normal lighting system of the city and big light bulbs are placed in different sections of the museum so that the original lighting of the building is not noticeable anymore. The main source of heating for the main building was a smoked and warm chamber where people in charge, known as “Toon Tab”, maintain the fire in order to keep the entire building warm. The smoke of fire was led out of the building, by using several narrow zig-zag shaped canals in the floor beneath the main building. This also kept the entire building warm. This mechanism is much identical to techniques which are known as radiant floor heating in modern architecture. In fact, the building of the Anthropology Museum of Mashhad is the oldest building of Iran which is equipped with the radiant floor heating. 
 
The floor of the main building of the museum is also covered with thick stones which are originated from mountains around the city. This choice not only was helpful in preventing any bacterial contamination of the bathroom but also kept the floor safe from any further damages due to water penetration.

The Anthropology Museum of Mashhad
In 2006 and right after the maintenance of the Mehdi Gholi Beik bathroom, the placed has transformed to the Anthropology Museum of Mashhad. Different sections of the original bathroom now hold several beautiful collections of tools that normal people have used in different historical eras of Iran, and particularly in Mashhad. Also in this museum, you can see features of the bathroom which have been discovered from the place during the maintenance phase. The present collections of the museums consist of: personal showering tools of people through time, lighting tools, clothes, local costumes, and coffee or tea makers of old times along with communication tools such as telegraph and telephones. Pictures from the daily life of normal people, old tools used for sports as well as precious pictorial carpets are also available in the Anthropology Museum of Mashhad.
The Anthropology Museum of Mashhad is located next to the holy shrine of Imam Reza, in one of the most popular parts of the city among tourists. Visiting this museum is a special opportunity for tourists to get more familiar not only with the culture and history of Iranians but also with the unique architecture, techniques, and art of this ancient country.