Sardar-e Bozorg Cistern

Sardar cisterns in Qazvin, a small and a large one, were built by the order of two brothers named Mohammad Hasan Khan Sardar and Mohammad Hossain Khan Sardar, who were rulers of Qazvin at the time of Fathali Shah. These two Iranian commanders also constructed many other monuments in the city among which Sardar school can be mentioned. 

Cisterns are among those structures which have been used by people in order to hold water and optimize its exploitation, throughout the history. Sardar cisterns in Qazvin is one of them which is considered to be one of the largest single-dome cisterns in Iran. It has high entrance constructed with pointed arche, which leads to the 12-meter-depth underground through fifty stone stairs in a way named Rah Shir. Today three of these stairs have been ruined. 

There is a certain part at the end of Rah Shir which is called Pa Shir; it is the same place in which water is held. An almost seventeen-meter square! The walls here have been made of lime standing firmly with a coverage of Sarouj composed of some limestone canal. The large dome of the cistern has also built of brick.

There is a wind catcher at the highest part of this brick dome which is approximately thirty meters high. The cistern has the capacity to maintain three thousand and six hundred square meters of water. Its water was provided through three Qanats, named Khomartash, Khiaban, and Keyfouri or Teyfouri. 

The cistern of Sardar-e Bozorg in Qazvin was built in 1227 AH in Rah-e Rey which is one of the oldest parts of the city, located on the downhills of Alborz Mountain.