In a country where much of the land receives little rain, people learned to find, move and keep water, and to keep cool. Three old technologies show how.
Qanats
A qanat is an underground channel that carries water from an aquifer in the foothills to a village or town on the plain, often over many kilometres. A skilled digger, the muqanni, works from a “mother well”, sinking a line of vertical shafts and linking them by a gently sloping tunnel. The shafts let the diggers remove earth and let air in. Because the water runs downhill by gravity, it needs no pump, and because it flows underground, little of it evaporates.
In 2016 UNESCO inscribed a group of qanats, “The Persian Qanat”, on the World Heritage list. They are still used for drinking water and farming.
Qanats were more than engineering. Villages shared and measured the water by time or by turns, and the upkeep of a qanat was a community affair.
Qanat systems are found across Asia, North Africa and beyond, and many scholars trace their origin to ancient Iran. Exactly when and where they began is debated.
Many qanats have dried up or been abandoned. Deep wells and pumps have lowered groundwater in much of the country, which threatens the old system and the gardens and villages that depend on it.
Windcatchers
In desert cities such as Yazd, tall towers called badgirs, “wind-catchers”, rise above houses and cisterns. Their openings face the prevailing wind, and internal walls direct air down into the building, often over a pool or an underground room, where evaporation can cool it. In calm weather, the tower can also work in reverse, drawing hot air up. Designs vary from simple one-sided towers to tall four-sided ones.
Water cisterns and ice houses
A traditional ab anbar is a covered cistern for drinking water, often with a dome and small vents, sometimes with windcatchers to keep the water cool. The yakhchal, “ice pit”, is a cone-shaped building with thick walls and a deep inside space where ice made or collected in winter could be kept through the summer, for drinks and desserts. Several of these structures still stand.
Why they matter
These systems are examples of building with the local climate rather than against it. They are also a reminder that water management has always been central to life in Iran, a theme that links ancient gardens to present-day questions.
Notes and sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'The Persian Qanat' (listing text; cite the exact page when checked).
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Historic City of Yazd' (listing text; cite the exact page when checked).
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, entries 'Qanat' and 'Bādgīr' (iranicaonline.org). Exact entry titles and authors to be added after the entries are opened.
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