Architectural Analysis of Water Supply Cisterns in the Old City of Herat, Afghanistan

The old city of Herat is an oasis located on the ancient silk road (trade route) in Afghanistan and has historically been replete with water supply cisterns. Using existing literature and interviews with residents, the paper attempts to reproduce the spatial analysis of water supply cisterns in the city and explain how the cisterns and their architecture developed. The typology of architectural forms is analysed for each of the three case studies of cisterns to clarify their historical development. Documents in Persian (Dari), satellite photographs, historical maps, and field surveys were used for the research.