The zurkhaneh is a house of strength: a baked-brick room set a few metres below the street, entered through one low door, lit by a single opening in the ceiling. At its centre is the gowd, an octagonal earthen pit about a metre deep. Athletes swing wooden mil clubs and lift the iron kabbadeh inside it.

Above one edge sits the morshed at his sardam, striking a goblet drum and chanting Ferdowsi. Everything in the room faces inward and downward, and everything is lit from one place. This system takes those two facts literally: light falls, layouts fall inward, and the drum sets the pace.