In search of a shelter from the merciless afternoon sun, my steps wander around a labyrinth of passages and mud brick built houses whose windcatchers, sticking out of the rooftops, ratify the inclemency of the desert’s climate.
According to UNESCO, Yazd is one of the oldest still inhabited cities in the world. The historical structure of Yazd is a collection of public-religious architecture on a very large scale, comprised of Islamic architectural elements from different periods in a harmonious combination with climatic conditions.
Yazd is also one of the largest cities built almost entirely out of adobe and has one of the largest networks of qanats (water tunnels) in the world. To deal with the extremely hot summers, badgirs (windcatchers or windtowers) stick out of the rooftops of houses in the old city and work as a natural ventilation system.
