According to a five-hundred-year-old document, which is attributed to the scholar and theologian “Sheikh Bahaei,” dated at “Rajab-ol-Morajjab, Year 923” of the lunar calendar, there is an explanation of the measurement of the Zayandeh Rud’s water shares.
Sheikh Bahaei divided the river’s water into 33 shares by exactly measuring the amount of rainfall in Isfahan’s different districts, surrounding mountains and the source of the river and studying the precise design of the canals and their slope and diameter and the usage of every garden, neighbourhood and house.
Each share equaled 5 days and nights of a part of the river’s water, during which it must be guided into each neighbourhood.
Leaving aside whether or not the Si-o-Se Pol’s arches are actually 33, it is said among the people that the bridge’s name comes from the thirty three shares indicated in Sheikh Bahaei’s scroll.
To explain the naming of the bridge, there are other stories said by the people as well, which are as follows:
- The famous slang: Esfand, grain by grain, Esfand, thirty three grains
- The thirty three eggs used in a Zoroastrian ritual
- The thirty three coins that were tied to the groom’s waist at the wedding
- The thirty three ways of virtue and the thirty three ways of vice
- The thirty three paths leading to heaven
- The thirty three deities of ancient Indian religions
- The meteor showers, which are most intense every 33 years
- The beads of a prayer bead, which are thirty three or a multiplied number of it and…
There is also another tale that states that the bridge was called the “Chehel Cheshmeh Bridge” (40 fountains), but after a while, because of the decrease of the water and the construction of the streets on each side of the river, which were lower than the bridge, seven of these water ways were removed and then it became known as the Si-o-Se Pol.
Name Si-o-Se pol
Other names Allah Verdi Khan bridge, Si-o-Se Cheshmeh bridge, Chaharbagh bridge, Shah Abbasi Bridge, Jolfa bridge, Zayandeh Rud bridge
Location Enghelab Square
Era Safavid
Founder Allah Verdi Khan Undiladze the Georgian
National Registration No.110 at 15 Dey 1310 Solar