My 19 Day Iranian Azerbaijan circuit - From the Caspian rives to Tabriz and Takht-e Soleiman - Day 5 (morning cont.) - Zanjân - The Rakhatshur-Khanêh and Zanjân's Museum of Anthropology - The 13th of may 2017

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From the Masjed-e Jomeh Mosque we walked along one of the main streets of Zanjân where quite by accident we came across a magnificent street musician playing one of the traditional stringed Iranian instruments and expressing himself in a rather sad and lengthy melodic voice, which really touched me despite not being able to understand the lyrics and subsequently what he was singing about.  

 

Just a few metres away we entered a fortress like door which gave access to a traditional laundry house pertaining to the Qajar era, which now houses the Zanjân's Museum of Anthropology.



The complex which is said to have been built under the order of the Zanjân mayor in 1928 as in accordance with the Iranian calendar  is divided in several sections, from the beautiful entrance garden leading to the actual laundry wash house basin area, where traditional clothes worn by the local ladies in the past are showcased in dolls positioned around the long basin.



At the end of that long basin there is a section displaying the typical puppet theatre apparel and on one of its side rooms we came across a workshop of traditional handicrafted charough shoes, whose work is carried out by women though supervised by a male shoemaker. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We still had time to visit a small Museum displaying artefacts of the epoch. I must confess the visit was fairly interesting because it provided us with an idea of how some of the public local day-to-day life chores were carried out.