Air-Conditioning Is 5100 Years Old!? Windcatchers In Yazd, Iran

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Could a 3000 year old invention be keeping us cool in modern times?

The answer to that is yes, ancient technology could play a huge role in our modern lives if the Researchers, Engineers and Architects figure out a way to make this doable in all locations.
Of course we have to take microclimatic conditions into account and it does rely on local weather, but it could possibly be that Wind Catchers may be the air conditioning of the future.

The ancient Wind catchers of Yazd, a city in Iran with some unique Persian Architecture.
The nickname of the city of Yazd is “the City of Wind Catchers”, but it’s also well known for its underground channels transporting water called Qanats, it’s ice houses known as Yakhchãls and its traditional reservoirs storing water known as ab anbars.
These are features that made the inhabitants of this city survive the hot desert climate, on a yearly basis there are only 23 days of precipitation with a total of 49 millimetres making this the driest major city in the entirety of Iran.
In 2017 UNESCO put the historical city of Yazd on the world heritage site list, and quite a large part of that decision was because of the wind catchers, this city might have the largest number of wind catchers in the world.

The invention of the Wind Catchers may have occurred in Ancient Egypt around 3100 BCE during the Early Dynastic Period, but Yazd is the city with possibly the most wind catchers in the world as they were one of the biggest reasons this part of the Iranian Plateau became inhabitable.

It’s a shame that many of the city’s wind catchers have fallen out of use over time, but the city did draw scholars, engineers and architects to it to possibly aid in our modern dilemma of Air-conditioning use and how that is affecting the climate.
Because wind catchers don’t need electricity to function they could be incredibly important in areas where the electrical grid is unreliable and expensive.
It would make air-conditioning available in places where there isn’t even electricity.
The shape of the tower, the layout of the house, how many openings the tower has, the internal blades and sections, the height and the direction in which the tower is facing are all specifically adjusted to improve the wind catcher’s ability to draw the wind down into the rooms of the building.
Some buildings have a subterranean pool where the air flows over for further cooling, which I personally think is a smart option if you have the room for it.

A wind catcher is never by itself, but always accompanied by at least one other wind tower on the same building.
The Wind catcher catches the wind, which is then funnelled down and will flow throughout the building, the cool air will flow underneath the warm air, and the pressure will push the warm air upwards which then rises and flows throughout another wind tower which in turn releases the warmed up air.


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