The historical houses that remained for our generation are the symbol of the traditional architecture that will be repeated no more; they show us the different life-style of our ancestors. Musa Khani mansion is one of these houses. You can find this beautiful mansion in Shahr-e Babak, Kerman province, in Beheshti street, near the Shariati intersection.
At the same time as the reign of Mohammad Shah and Naser al-Din Shah, Haj Mohammad Ali famous as Haj Aqa and then his son, Musa Khan, were the rulers of Shahr-e Babak. The mansion that was built in their time in Shahr-e Babak is now known as Musa Khani mansion. The date of construction of this building backs to 1227 to 1232 Ah. This royal mansion was 2300 square meter area and its garden occupied about 5200 square meter area.
Passing through the corridor one enters the yard that is seen in rectangular form. It is foursquare pool reflects the picture of the whole mansion in the water like a mirror. There are foursquare gardens that are full of flowers all around the pool. The rooms of the mansion are observable around the yard that have large windows.
The house is two-story with 60 rooms. These rooms are located in two internal and external parts. the main part of this house is placed in the north of the mansion. The north side is proper for summer, south side for the spring and the west side for the summer.
The spring part of Musa Khani mansion is in front of a pleasing garden. This part of the building has a main porch with two smaller porches on two sides of it.
Windward, the symbol of Kavir architecture, is seen in this mansion, too. In the western part there is a tall windward; in the north of the building and in two sides of the alcove there also designed smaller windward. The crown of the western windward was damaged in 1365 SH flood. It seems that windward was used as the scout towers in time of Farajollah Khan, Musa Khan’s grandson.
The building was built of wood, stone, plaster, lime and adobe. The wooden parts like Orosis and doors are from the walnut wood, columns and barriers from berry wood.
Musa Khani Mansion has artistic stucco works on which the motifs of animals, plants and geometric patterns carved. The stucco works in the central yard and western walls of the house were restored in autumn, 1397 SH. The house of Musa Khani that was the governor’s building for a while, now is in the hand of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism organization and the Ethnography Museum has been established in its north side.
