Qotbiyeh watermill, one of the water structures taken from local knowledge in Sirjan plain

Watermills are considered valuable treasures of Iranian indigenous and cultural knowledge. Due to the climatic conditions of this land, the people of the past have tried to make maximum use of water energy by building water structures. Therefore, watermills that have used the knowledge of water engineering, mechanics, and architecture, have been used in different parts of Iran since ancient times. One of these water structures is Qutbiyeh Mill in Sirjan city, identified and studied during archaeological field activities in 2019. The purpose of this article is to introduce and study the Qotbiyeh water mill in Sirjan plain to gain a proper understanding of its performance and architecture analysis. The questions of this research are as follows: Qutbiyeh water mill belongs to which type of water mills in Iran? What were the components and the architectural structure of this mill? The present study was conducted by descriptive-analytical method, and its data were collected based on field studies and literature. The results showed that the Sirjan Qotbiyeh water mill was a furnace watermill, working with the water of the Qotbiyeh qanat, and its architectural structure included a complete set of different main and side spaces surrounded by a circular defensive wall.